2003 has 10 colors and 2007 has 12.
If you’ve converting a file from 2003 to 2007, 2007 adds two new color “locations”, but re-positions the 10 colors from 2003 somewhat randomly to the new 12 location scheme in 2007. That means the next time you need a new shape, getting the correct color becomes unpredictable.
Naturally, you can re-organize the colors, but in a large company, people share things without thinking of version issues and the issue may not be noticed until a top exec is nearly ready to go on stage and asks for a change in his presentation. The designer being asked may not be aware of the color shift and it could be an embarrassment for everyone involved.
More on this is coming. We suspect it could be a bug, but we’re checking into it.
PowerPoint 2003/2007 — Color Palette Conversion
This issue is in the process of being sorted out, but for now, just know that there are issues with the color palettes when converting or saving to the other version.
We are having a problem with this too. Some employees use Office 2003 and some use Office 2007. The background in our corporate powerpoint template changes color depending on the version. Have you come up with a solution yet?
Found your site while looking into this issue. I’ve been doing presentations for quite a while but didn’t actually try to figure out how 2007’s color palette works until today. The light/dark text/background 1/2 thing is super confusing. The documentation basically says to play around with it and see what you get.