Why can't I change my cell colors on my Excel Work Sheets

Question

Why can't I change the colors in my header on my Excel worksheets?

Answer 1

Hello Gene Pruitt

Thank you for posting on Microsoft Q&A forum

I can see that you are currently can't change your cell color in Excel Work sheets

Can you describe more detail what happen when you attempt to change the cell color? If possible, can you take a screenshot when the issue happens? It could help me better understand the problem you are facing.

Also, when you said header, which of these headers are you referring to:

• The printed Header/Footer (the area at the very top/bottom when printing)
• The Header Row of your data / Table header (Row 1, or the bold header row in an Excel Table)
• The row/column headings (the A, B, C at top and 1, 2, 3 on the left) or the highlight color of those headings.

I hope to hear update from you soon.

Answer 2

Excel does not allow changing the color of the worksheet header area (the row numbers and column letters). Those headers always use the default interface colors and cannot be formatted with Fill Color or font color like normal cells.

To highlight or color-code information, use cell formatting instead:

1. Select the cells to highlight (or use the Select All button to select the whole sheet).
2. On the Home tab, choose the arrow next to Fill Color.
3. Pick a color under Theme Colors or Standard Colors (or choose More Colors for a custom color).

If the goal is to change the overall look of the workbook (including available colors), switch or customize the workbook theme from Page Layout > Themes.

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References:

• Add or change the background color of cells in Excel
• Apply or remove cell shading in Excel
• Change the appearance of your worksheet