A question from my Power Excel seminar in Tulsa... several co-workers have a problem in Excel 2010 when they select a range of cells. The color of the selected range is a green color, making it hard to see the cells. Today's video shows where to find this setting.
Transcript of the video:
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Learn Excel from MrExcel netcast, episode 1913.
Why is my Excel 2010 Selected Range color Green?
Hey, welcome back to the MrExcel netcast, I'm Bill Jelen.
Today's question, I got this at the Tulsa Power Excel Seminar.
I think the Tulsa IMA, they put on a great day, over 300 people there for my seminar.
And someone came up and said, that several of their co-workers, now, they're using Excel 2010, and when they select cells, the cells are… the selection range is showing up in green instead of the normal color.
And had gone through all of the Excel options, trying to figure out where this setting was.
And while you can find something here to change the gridline color, there doesn't appear to be any corresponding symbol or setting to change the selection color.
And it turns out, that this setting is actually coming from the Windows’ Control Panel, not from Excel.
So I assume, if you're watching this video, you probably search for it, you have this problem, let's go through the steps of how to turn it off.
We actually want to be outside of Excel, you don't have to close Excel, you just have to minimize Excel.
And you want to get back to your Desktop.
On the Desktop, right click and choose Personalize.
And then, at the bottom, go to Window Color and this gets you to the old Window Color and Appearance page.
Lots of different items that you control the color of in here and we want to go to something called Selected Items.
And you'll see that it is set to dark green.
Now one interesting thing there.
Tor those of you just watching the… for those of you just watching the podcast, you don't have this problem.
When I came here, my color was actually preset to blue, which does not appear to be the real color.
So it looks like there's a bug in this… in this dialog box.
So if you come here and start messing with things, you're going to not be able to see the original color as it was and you're going… if you change it, it's going to be tough to change it back.
So let's go here to that white color, click Apply and I'll come back to Excel.
And I select the range, and now it is no longer green.
Although, it still to me doesn't feel like what I used to have in Excel 2010.
But at least I can see things a little bit better through the selection color.
Now this appears to only work in Excel 2010.
I remember in excel 2007 it was too dark, we couldn't change it.
In Excel 2013 it's not being affected by that setting, so it's just like a one-version kind of thing.
All right, hey, I want to thank you for stopping by, we'll see you next time for another netcast – MrExcel.
Learn Excel from MrExcel netcast, episode 1913.
Why is my Excel 2010 Selected Range color Green?
Hey, welcome back to the MrExcel netcast, I'm Bill Jelen.
Today's question, I got this at the Tulsa Power Excel Seminar.
I think the Tulsa IMA, they put on a great day, over 300 people there for my seminar.
And someone came up and said, that several of their co-workers, now, they're using Excel 2010, and when they select cells, the cells are… the selection range is showing up in green instead of the normal color.
And had gone through all of the Excel options, trying to figure out where this setting was.
And while you can find something here to change the gridline color, there doesn't appear to be any corresponding symbol or setting to change the selection color.
And it turns out, that this setting is actually coming from the Windows’ Control Panel, not from Excel.
So I assume, if you're watching this video, you probably search for it, you have this problem, let's go through the steps of how to turn it off.
We actually want to be outside of Excel, you don't have to close Excel, you just have to minimize Excel.
And you want to get back to your Desktop.
On the Desktop, right click and choose Personalize.
And then, at the bottom, go to Window Color and this gets you to the old Window Color and Appearance page.
Lots of different items that you control the color of in here and we want to go to something called Selected Items.
And you'll see that it is set to dark green.
Now one interesting thing there.
Tor those of you just watching the… for those of you just watching the podcast, you don't have this problem.
When I came here, my color was actually preset to blue, which does not appear to be the real color.
So it looks like there's a bug in this… in this dialog box.
So if you come here and start messing with things, you're going to not be able to see the original color as it was and you're going… if you change it, it's going to be tough to change it back.
So let's go here to that white color, click Apply and I'll come back to Excel.
And I select the range, and now it is no longer green.
Although, it still to me doesn't feel like what I used to have in Excel 2010.
But at least I can see things a little bit better through the selection color.
Now this appears to only work in Excel 2010.
I remember in excel 2007 it was too dark, we couldn't change it.
In Excel 2013 it's not being affected by that setting, so it's just like a one-version kind of thing.
All right, hey, I want to thank you for stopping by, we'll see you next time for another netcast – MrExcel.
