Using Color in Headers and Footers

When creating headers and footers for your worksheets, you can modify many attributes used by Excel. When you design a custom header or footer you can click the A tool in the Header or Footer dialog box to select a font or to change other attributes of the font (size, style, etc.).

If you are using Excel 97 through Excel 2003, one thing you cannot change is the color used for the text. Early versions of Excel allowed you to modify header and footer colors, but the capability was removed beginning in Excel 4.0. It was only in Excel 2007 that the capability was again added to the program.

If you can't change the color, the only thing you can do is try a workaround. If you are using Excel 97 or Excel 2000, you can simply create your "header" in the first row of your worksheet, and then repeat that row at the top of each printed page. (There is no way to repeat a row at the bottom of a page, so you'd be out of luck for color footers.)

If you are using Excel 2002 or Excel 2003, you can create a color graphic, and then place that graphic into the header or footer. This is often done when you need color in logos and other graphic elements, and you need them to repeat on multiple pages.