Excel Color Palette Changes when Opening another

[Grollor33]

This may sound like a stupid question, but I have an issue that's been driving me crazy...

While I'm working in "Spreadsheet A", I have available to me the standard color palette. I use a lot of color formatting in my database to segregate different types of items.

If I open a second spreadsheet that also has a lot of color formatting, some colors in my color palette (in both sheets) changes to a darker shade (seems to be mostly the orange band). Under the options menu, it still shows that I have a "Standard" color palette. Now, however, when I mouse over the color block in the drop down it says "Color Scheme" instead of "Orange" (for example)...Resetting the color palette has no effect.

Closing the second database doesn't help either... I need to close Excel entirely, and open the first...then my colors are back to normal...


Of course I'd like to resolve this issue, but I'm more intrigued by it...any ideas??

 

[MikeHalloran]

I don't know the answer, but I can report on a possibly related problem.

When I copy/ paste a block of cells with colored borders from one spreadsheet to another, the border color changes on the pasted cells, e.g. from red to cyan.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[joerd]

Mike,

That seems to be the intended behavior. The color palette is connected to the workbook, so if you change it, it will only be changed for the one workbook that you're in. If you copy/paste cells, the colorindex will remain the same, but the displayed color will be dependent on the color palette for that workbook. So if you changed color 1 (black) to green on one workbook, and applied that color in the workbook, and you copy some cells to another workbook, the green will be displayed as black, because it is still color 1.
Jweav's problem seems to defy this logic, I don't know what is going on there.

Cheers,
Joerd

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[Grollor33]

I'm glad I'm not the only one whose puzzled by it...Thanks

 

[MikeHalloran]

I didn't change any palettes.

The behavior is consistent, but entirely counter- intuitive.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[billbPG]

This drove me nuts for months and I still have no idea why MSExcel does this, but I stumbled upon a way to at least fix the palettes, file by file.

First, open the workbook with the color palette you want to keep. Open the 2nd workbook (with the ugly colors), but don't switch back to (activate) the 1st workbook - I noticed that doing so instantly copies the ugly color pallet of the 2nd. Who knows why?

Now, staying in the 2nd workbook, go to Tools->Options->Color(tab), select the 1st workbook's title in the "Copy colors from" dropdown. The palette should immediately change (before hitting OK). If not, then it didn't copy or the 1st book's palette got polluted again somehow.

I hope this work for you.

 

[MikeHalloran]

What an interesting, er, behavior.

[ I tried copy/paste a group of (red) bordered cells and it worked as before. The border pasted in with the color that it had been highlighted with (cyan) as part of the select process, which I suppose makes at least some sense. I hate the behavior, but it's at least consistent ... and distinct from palette manipulations. ]

Then I tried "copy colors from" in the palette color dialog, and a bunch of cells that had been highlighted in gray immediately changed to coral orange.

Funny thing is that I could then change all those cells to grey by modifying a particular cell of the palette, normally coral orange, and they all changed. Then I changed that cell in the palette back to coral orange, and all the cells changed to coral orange, so the worksheet cells are somehow now mapped to that normally coral orange cell in the palette. But those worksheet cells weren't originally mapped to that cell of the palette.







Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA