Excel 2007 : Fill color compatibility excel 2007 to excel 2003

Andy - Thanks for the reply, how would I go about creating an add in that would create a UI to the old color palette. I'm not what you call an advanced excel user by any stretch of the imagination and any guidance on this would be appreciated.

As to the old colors still being available, the only colors I can seem to pick out from Excel 2007 that pass the compatibility check is red and yellow.

Would creating a custom theme / color palette of the orginal 56 colors and then using that exclusively when creating spreadsheets in 2007 for use in 2003 give me the backwards compatibility I'm looking for? If so do you know where I could find one on the www. I've searched and so far have not had any luck finding a solution to this issue that a user of my moderate excel skill level could effectively use on a regular basis.

Again Thanks for Your Help

Jim

Andy - Thank you very much!!! That's too cool!

I added a link/shortcut button to the 2003 color drop down you created to my quick access toolbar for quicker access, renamed sheet 1 to "2003 Color List" and then hid that worksheet. Now if I would rename this file say Book1Colors2003 is there any way I can set the Excel options to have this open as the default workbook?

Also two things I noticed when experimenting with the 2003 Color drop down.
1. The "No Fill" button does not clear the fill from the selected cell.
2. The "Undo" function is not active and will not clear the fill when a cell is filled by the 2003 Color drop down.

I am by no means complaining or criticizing your work. I'd just thought you'd like to know.


I have attached your file with the changes I made in case my explaination wasn't clear.

Again Thank you very much for your help.
Jim

Thanks Andy, now how do I save it as an Add-In?

Jim

Andy - I could not save the file as you described when I extracted the file and then opened it the Save As and other functions were disabled.

I then tried extracting the file to C:\Users\Myname\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\AddIns. This worked, when I then opened Excel the file was visible in the Office Button \ Excel Options\ Add-Ins Active and In-Active file view. I then selected the file from the Manage Add-Ins dialog box, Closed and Restarted Excel and Tab1 was visible and functioning in Book1.

It works great, Thank you for solving this problem.

Jim

Excel 2007 workbooks contain a previous version 56 color palette that can be modified so users of previous versions see the same colors when opening your files.

In Excel 2007 go to Office Button > Excel Options > Save (option in left sidebar) > Colors… button. This is the default 56 color palette that your colors are converted to for users of previous versions. This palette can be modified to use the new 2007 theme colors. It's a tedious task because you'll have to enter the RGB values for each color you use from the new theme palette.

The free tool from excelcampus.com automates the entire process and allows you to update previous version palettes on multiple workbooks. And it's fairly simple to use.

http://excelcampus.com/tools/excels-...ility-solution

Hope this helps,
Jon

Originally Posted by Andy Pope

I forgot to adda callback and code for the No fill.

If you save it as an addin you can have it loaded all the time with a workbook being visible.

Hi Andy

That works really well for the fill colours - thanks very much.

Cheeky question though - do you have something similar that would work for the font colours as well?

Thanks

Ratzakli

Originally Posted by Andy Pope

I forgot to adda callback and code for the No fill.

If you save it as an addin you can have it loaded all the time with a workbook being visible.

It's quite cool. but it can only fill color to cells, how to modify it to fill color to charts, such as bar, line?

Originally Posted by Plas62

Andy - I could not save the file as you described when I extracted the file and then opened it the Save As and other functions were disabled.

I then tried extracting the file to C:\Users\Myname\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\AddIns. This worked, when I then opened Excel the file was visible in the Office Button \ Excel Options\ Add-Ins Active and In-Active file view. I then selected the file from the Manage Add-Ins dialog box, Closed and Restarted Excel and Tab1 was visible and functioning in Book1.

It works great, Thank you for solving this problem.

Jim

Hi Andy and Jim. Thanks to both of you for solving this problem. It was giving me nightmares since years...!

Saurabh

Hi all,

The fill file is just great! Thanks Andy!
Has anybody seen similar xlam file but for Font colors?

Thank you.
Ryszard

See this thread
http://www.excelforum.com/excel-gene...12#post3083912
Geoff

I have been trying to do this for three years. Thank you.

NB is there anyway to add this add these button to word and outlook? Any help would be much appreciated.

It's not something I have contemplated, but the tool is Excel based as it has worksheets containing the list of colours. I don't know if you can have Excel Addins referenced from Word or Outlook but I doubt it.
As Microsoft is withdrawing support from Office 2003 on 8 April I have no plans for further development in this area.
Geoff

Hi,

Is there a way to edit which colors appear on this custom palette? We just upgraded to Microsoft Excel 2010 at the office after years of using 2003. Biggest problem is the unavailability of the color palette we were accustomed to in order to present our reports. I have got the RGB values for all of the necessary colors, however I am not sure as to how one could edit this add-in. Any help would be very much appreciated it.

Thank you in advance.

Thank you everyone, this was very helpful!

Just found this little gem. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this little addin. This thread deserves a bump.