Colors in Excel (Excel 2003)

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I have a user who is unable to apply color to either fonts or cells. This is on every workbook. If the user inserts a text box and fills it with color the color does not show, but if you select the text box after applying the color the color shows. Once you deselect the text box, the color no longer shows. There is no problem formatting borders; the entire issue has to do with colors, both font and fills.

I checked everything I can think of and I reset the colors. I changed the WIndows color scheme, and the Black and White setting in the Setup dialog is not enabled.

If the user selects cells and applies color the cells do not show any color, but if you select one of those cells and open the Format Cells dialog, it shows the applied color.

I would be grateful for any ideas at all…

Thanks,

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If you hold down the control key whilst starting Excel (and click yes to start in safe mode), does the problem go away?

Alternatively, what happens if you try selecting a different printer?

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I should’ve mentioned that I tried both of those approaches. I started Excel in safe mode and I tried all the installed printers, all to no avail. I also opened Word and created a table, no problem in the Word table

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This is probably not the cause, but just to make sure: have you checked that “Use High Contrast” is OFF in the Display tab of the Accessibility Options control panel?

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I have not checked that but I will.

But wouldn’t that setting also affect Word?

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It affects Word less than Excel. Word still displays paragraph and cell shading when High Contrast is on, Excel doesn’t display cell shading (fill colors).

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