Conditional Formatting Selection Not Working (Font Color and Fill)

Question

This is a report of an issue that has been previously reported on the following (locked) threads:

Luellen, April 29, 2019

Charles Giles, May 20, 2019

jhart_16, June 19, 2019

Martin Ryan, July 3, 2019

This bug persists as of August 13, 2020. I have encountered the issue when trying to change both FONT COLOR (under the condition "Use a formula to determine which cells to format) and cell COLOR (i.e. Fill, under the condition "Format all cells based on their values" and using a color scale).

Some observations:

Some colors can be selected, and others cannot (as others have reported).

It only happens when using a secondary monitor(as others have reported).

The extent of the issue is dependent on where the Format Cells box is located on the screen.

For example, with FONT COLOR:

If the Format Cells box is at the top of the screen, when the Color Picker drops BELOW the dropdown box, no colors can be selected. 

If the Format Cells box is at the bottom of the screen, when the Color Picker drops ABOVE the dropdown box, some colors can be selected. Importantly, if you select a color that is "on top" of the Font Style box, it will change the font style instead of the color. This suggests that Excel is somehow "not seeing" the color picker box in certain places on the screen.

Step 1: note that "regular" font style is selected.

  ![](https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/4db4a7d8-4771-4e3f-ba81-8c5495c07501?platform=QnA"https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/3eb019df-fa59-436a-b257-0142e276480d?platform=QnA" rel="ugc nofollow">

Step 3: note that, instead of changing the font Color to Orange, it has changed the Font Style to Bold Italic.

There are workarounds for the issue, but this is clearly a bug. Please fix it.

Answer 1

Dear Caroline,

Thanks for posting the thread on our forum.

I do a test and it seems that I can't reproduce the issue in our environment currently.

I'd like you to confirm whether you are using the latest version of the Office applications. If no, I suggest you update the version number, restart the computer and then do a test to see the result.

Meanwhile, I'd like you to upload a full screenshot of the Account page in the Excel application you are using for our reference. You can access the page via clicking on File>Account.

Note: Remove any private information before uploading the screenshots.

Moreover, I suggest you log into the computer with the administrator account>go to Control Panel>Programs>right-click on the Office applications' icon>Change>check whether there is an Online Repair option. If yes, run it, restart the computer and then do a test to see the result.

Best Regards,

Cliff

Answer 2

Dear Caroline,

Welcome to share any updates when you have time if you need further help on this issue.

Best Regards,

Cliff