Forum Discussion
Default/no fill colour is grey
Hi all,
I have an issue with my Excel that I haven't been able to shift - wondering if anyone on here can help.
The default colour for a sheet in a workbook, whether I'm creating a new one or opening an existing workbook, is a kind of mid-grey rather than the usual white. I can colour a cell white, but then if I clear formatting it'll revert to that grey. Specifically, the colour is R205, G207, B212. Snip attached to show what I mean - all I've done in that snip is create the table and colour a strip of cells white and black to show the difference.
I've tried playing around with Themes and Colors, and even uninstalling Office entirely and starting again - nothing has made any difference. I can colour things white, but I can't change the 'no colour' colour to white.
I have no idea how to change this! Any help much appreciated.
Normal style is for the current workbook only. IF XLSTART folder is empty (how to find depends on version https://support.office.com/en-us/article/automatically-open-a-specific-workbook-or-template-when-you-start-excel-be9cddc1-a148-4cbf-8f3b-779df08957a3) it's better to re-install the Office.
Simple re-install won't help since office keeps all settings, you need to uninstall with fix https://support.office.com/en-us/article/uninstall-office-from-a-pc-9dd49b83-264a-477a-8fcc-2fdf5dbf61d8?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US or fix manually https://support.office.com/en-us/article/manually-uninstall-office-4e2904ea-25c8-4544-99ee-17696bb3027b
5 Replies
Normal style is for the current workbook only. IF XLSTART folder is empty (how to find depends on version https://support.office.com/en-us/article/automatically-open-a-specific-workbook-or-template-when-you-start-excel-be9cddc1-a148-4cbf-8f3b-779df08957a3) it's better to re-install the Office.
Simple re-install won't help since office keeps all settings, you need to uninstall with fix https://support.office.com/en-us/article/uninstall-office-from-a-pc-9dd49b83-264a-477a-8fcc-2fdf5dbf61d8?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US or fix manually https://support.office.com/en-us/article/manually-uninstall-office-4e2904ea-25c8-4544-99ee-17696bb3027b
***UPDATE*** It turns out I had manually changed the Window section of the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors in the registry from 255 255 255 to 215 215 215. Apparently Excel reads this item in the registry and changes the No Fill attribute color accordingly. Registry editors beware!
I have this issue too and I can't fix it. If I uninstall and re-install Office 365 it goes away and I can work in a document once or twice with the "no fill" cells showing correctly but then after I close and re-open excel it comes back and all no fill cells are now grey. After this the program sometimes freezes or crashes when I use the pop-up menu to try and change the cell fill color. Don't know what to do anymore.
- That seems to have fixed it. Thank you!
The first place to look is the Normal style and see what the Fill property is set to. I use such a fill intentionally to prevent cells being displayed in areas that I have not assigned to be part of my model by declaring ranges as Input (I use white rather than the ginger default) or Calculation (also white fill).
If it is the normal style then the jolly little stripy tables would need alternate lines set to white rather than no fill.
Hi Peter,
Looks like the Fill property is set to No Shading. I can change that to white, but if I do that then clearing the fill on a cell returns it to grey, so it's not ideal.
