RH

Hi—as a VBA user, I was immediately captivated and fascinated by just how well certain tasks can be handled using scripts instead of VBA. Your approach hooked me right away... it was the "aha moment" that inspired me to dive deeper into Office Scripts.

As for your questions: I had no intention of changing this beautiful idea—only of refining it a little, of giving it a bit more luster 😊. Here are my thoughts on the matter—the whys and wherefores.

No Fill Detection

You're right — it's inconsistent. getColor() returns null for both "no fill" AND some weird edge cases. Your if(noFill){clear()}else{setColor()} approach is semantically correct but fragile in practice. My yellow default is the pragmatic call — predictable > pure.

Dark mode: null ≠ white there either, so it's even flakier.

indexOf() — Why …

== demands exact match. indexOf() asks "does this range contain the original cell?" — works for single cells AND ranges. That's the whole difference.

& === vs ==

Here? Zero practical difference — both sides are strings. But === is the TS standard: no type coercion, clearer intent. Your == wasn't "looser" here — it would only matter with mixed types (null == undefined → true, etc.). Habit, not necessity. 😊

none vs solid

Functionally identical — both = solid color. none = "erase any pattern, just use color." solid = "set pattern to solid." none is the true default state, so it's the cleaner reset. Think of it as clearPattern() vs setPattern(solid). Same result, none is more explicit.

Pattern Copy?

Dead simple to add — just grab origFill.getPattern() alongside getColor() and apply both in the loop + restore. Took 3 extra lines. Your instinct was right — not overkill at all.

Here the version that copies both color AND pattern...I hope this is feasible in Office Script :-)

function main(workbook: ExcelScript.Workbook) {

    let selectedRange = workbook.getSelectedRange();

    let origCell = workbook.getActiveCell();

    let origAddress = origCell.getAddress();

    let origFill = origCell.getFormat().getFill();

   

    let selectedColor = origFill.getColor();

    let selectedPattern = origFill.getPattern();

   

    // Default to yellow + solid if no color

    if (!selectedColor) {

        selectedColor = "#FFFF00";

        selectedPattern = ExcelScript.FillPattern.solid;

        origFill.setColor(selectedColor);

        origFill.setPattern(selectedPattern);

    }

   

    // Mark source with grid

    origFill.setPattern(ExcelScript.FillPattern.grid);

   

    // Wait for user to move away

    while (selectedRange.getAddress() === origAddress) {

        selectedRange = workbook.getSelectedRange();

    }

   

    // Paint color + pattern until user returns

    while (selectedRange.getAddress().indexOf(origAddress) === -1) {

        let targetFill = selectedRange.getFormat().getFill();

        targetFill.setColor(selectedColor);

        targetFill.setPattern(selectedPattern);  // NEW: copy pattern too!

        selectedRange = workbook.getActiveCell();

    }

   

    // Restore original: remove grid, reapply color + pattern

    origFill.setPattern(ExcelScript.FillPattern.none);

    origFill.setColor(selectedColor);

    origFill.setPattern(selectedPattern);  // NEW: restore pattern too!

}

That was a fantastic deep dive. Your original script was already 90% complete—it’s just the final 10% of stylistic polishing now; nothing more 😊.