KB157202 - XL97: Color Palette Looks Different in Microsoft Excel 97

Article ID: 157202

Article Last Modified on 10/11/2006

Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q157202

For a Microsoft Excel 2002 version of this article, see 291293.
For a Microsoft Excel 2000 version of this article, see 211533.
For a Microsoft Excel 98 version of this article, see 179003.

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel 97, when you select a color from the color palette, the value of the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications ColorIndex property of the color you select may not be what you expect.

CAUSE

This occurs in Microsoft Excel 97, because colors within the color palette are sorted chromatically, not by color index. This behavior is different than in earlier versions of Microsoft Excel.

MORE INFORMATION

In Microsoft Excel, you can view the color palette by clicking the arrow just to the right of the Font Color button on the Formatting toolbar.

In Microsoft Excel versions 5.0 and 7.0, colors are arranged on the color palette by color index. The first row of colors contains colors 1 through 8, the second row contains colors 9 through 16, and so on.

In Microsoft Excel 97, colors are arranged on the color palette in chromatic order. The first row contains the eight darkest colors, the second row is lighter than the first and so on to the last row, which contains the eight lightest colors.

The ColorIndex property values have not changed, however, so macro code that changes the color of fonts or cell backgrounds should work exactly the same in Microsoft Excel 97 as it does in earlier versions of Microsoft Excel.

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

149170 XL: Sample Visual Basic Code to Create Color Index Table

REFERENCES

For more information about the ColorIndex property, click the Office Assistant while in the Visual Basic Editor, type ColorIndex click Search, and then click to view "ColorInex Property."

NOTE: If the Assistant is hidden, click the Office Assistant button on the Standard toolbar. If the Assistant is not able to answer your query, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

176476 OFF: Office Assistant Not Answering Visual Basic Questions

Additional query words: XL97 indexes indices

Keywords: kbprb kbui KB157202