Apply or remove cell shading

Fill cells with solid colors

1. Select the cells that you want to apply shading to or remove shading from. For more information on selecting cells in a worksheet, see Select cells, ranges, rows, or columns on a worksheet.

2. On the Home tab, in the Font group, do one of the following:

   

   • To fill cells with a solid color, select the arrow next to Fill Color , and then under Theme Colors or Standard Colors, select the color that you want.

   • To fill cells with a custom color, select the arrow next to Fill Color , select More Colors, and then in the Colors dialog box select the color that you want.

   • To apply the most recently selected color, select Fill Color .

     Note: Microsoft Excel saves your 10 most recently selected custom colors. To quickly apply one of these colors, select the arrow next to Fill Color , and then select the color that you want under Recent Colors.

     

Fill cells with patterns

1. Select the cells that you want to fill a pattern with. For more information on selecting cells in a worksheet, see Select cells, ranges, rows, or columns on a worksheet.

2. On the Home tab, in the Font group, select the Format Cells dialog box launcher.

   

   Keyboard shortcut  You can also press CTRL+SHIFT+F.

3. In the Format Cells dialog box, on the Fill tab, under Background Color, select the background color that you want to use.

4. Do one of the following:

   • To use a pattern with two colors, select another color in the Pattern Color box, and then select a pattern style in the Pattern Style box.

   • To use a pattern with special effects, select Fill Effects, and then select the options that you want on the Gradient tab.

Verify print options to print cell shading in color

If print options are set to Black and white or Draft quality — either on purpose, or because the workbook contains large or complex worksheets and charts that caused draft mode to be turned on automatically — cell shading cannot print in color.

1. On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, select the Page Setup dialog box launcher.

   

2. On the Sheet tab, under Print, make sure that the Black and white and Draft quality check boxes are cleared.

Remove cell shading

1. Select the cells that contain a fill color or fill pattern. For more information on selecting cells in a worksheet, see Select cells, ranges, rows, or columns on a worksheet

2. On the Home tab, in the Font group, select the arrow next to Fill Color, and then select No Fill.

   

Set a default fill color for all cells in a worksheet

In Excel, you cannot change the default fill color for a worksheet. By default, all cells in a workbook contain no fill. However, if you frequently create workbooks that contain worksheets with cells that all have a specific fill color, you can create an Excel template. For example, if you frequently create workbooks where all the cells are green, you can create a template to simplify this task. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Create a new, blank worksheet.

2. Select the Select All button, to select the whole worksheet.

   

3. On the Home tab, in the Font group, select the arrow next to Fill Color , and then select the color that you want.

   Tip    When you change the fill colors of the cells on a worksheet, the gridlines can become difficult to see. To make the gridlines stand out on the screen, you can experiment with border and line styles. These settings are located on the Home tab, in the Font group. To apply borders to your worksheet, select the entire worksheet, select the arrow next to Borders , and then select All Borders.

4. On the File tab, select Save As.

5. In the File name box, type the name that you want to use for the template.

6. In the Save as type box, select Excel Template, select Save, and then close the worksheet.

   The template is automatically placed in the Templates folder to make sure that it will be available when you want to use it to create a new workbook.

7. To open a new workbook based on the template, do the following:

   1. On the File tab, select New.

   2. Under Available Templates, select My templates.

   3. In the New dialog box, under Personal Templates, select the template that you just created.

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