Changing Cell Colors

Excel includes a tool that allows you to quickly change the color of a selected cell. The Fill Color tool (available on the Formatting toolbar or on the Home tab of the ribbon) has a small bucket and color sample on it. This tool actually has two parts: If you click on the left part (the part with the small bucket and color sample), then the color shown in the sample is applied to the cells you have selected. Note that the color of the font doesn't change, only the color of the cell background.

If you click on the arrow at the right side of the tool, you will see a color palette appear. To select a color, click your mouse on one of the small color squares. This is applied to the cells you have selected and appears in the color sample on the Fill Color tool.

Another method of changing cell color is as follows:

1. Select the cells whose color you want to change.
2. Display the Format Cells dialog box. (In versions of Excel before Excel 2007 choose the Cells option from the Format menu. In Excel 2007 press Ctrl+Shift+F.)
3. Make sure the Patterns tab or, in Excel 2007, the Fill tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
4. Using the color palette in the dialog box, select a cell color.
5. Click on OK.