It is possible to implement color schemes into your Excel spreadsheets. Not only do they look good, but they help define columns, headings and sections; making them easy to read and far more understandable. This Excel tutorial will show you exactly how to fill cells with different colors. You will learn Excel the easy way and be able to create advanced, colorful spreadsheets.
Filling entire cells with color is extremely easy. The first thing to do is highlight all the cells you wish to color. Once you have done that, you will need to go to the Home tab on your Excel toolbar and look in the Font box. The Cell Fill icon is usually set to yellow as a default and it looks like a tilted bucket that is pouring paint:
The window that appears once this arrow has been clicked has numerous colors that you can use, as well as different hues of the same color. You can click on any of them and your highlighted cells will automatically be filled with your chosen color. Each column or row can be used to emphasize specific information. Here is an example:
As you can see, this is very boring and difficult to read. After the colors have been filled in, there is a phenomenal difference:
This example shows how you can create color themes using different shades of the same color. It also shows how headings can be made to stand out and important information can be highlighted to catch the eye.
Now that we understand how to choose colors and implement them into our spreadsheets, we can look at the last two functions available once we have clicked the arrow next to the Cell Fill icon:
-
No Fill
When this option is clicked, it will remove all the colors that have been formatted inside the highlighted section. It is important to note that this is the only way to remove them. If you click on white, the format will remain because white is still a color.
-
More Colors
Clicking this option will open a window that has more colors to choose from. This advanced function has a Standard and Custom tab. Both of these offer different ways of choosing an advanced color:
This is basic formatting of colored cells in a spreadsheet, and you will be able to use it to your advantage. Excel also has advanced functions that allow you to add patterns to your colors, as well as shade gradients. Students from our Excel course in Miami/Ft Lauderdale suggested for us to write this article. Feel free to watch our Excel tutorial videos to gain further insight into what you can do with your Excel spreadsheets.
