Using Excel 2003 colours in Excel 2007

Microsoft Excel 2007 introduces the capacity to display a "practically unlimited" amount of colours at once on your spreadsheet compared to the very limited number of colours in Excel 2003. However, when saving an Excel 2007 spreadsheet in Excel 2003 format, the colours are converted into the "nearest" Excel 2003 colour.

This can be very frustrating as Excel 2007 does not have a "Excel 2003 colour palette" to facilitate the backwards compatibility. However, following the instructions below, you can create your own "Excel 2003 colour palette" for you and your colleages to use in Excel 2007.

For this, you will require a computer with Excel 2003 installed and a computer with Excel 2007 installed.

Looking for Microsoft Excel training in Sydney? Click here for our courses.

In Excel 2003, click "Tools" then "Options", then click the "Colours" tab.

On the panel of colours, click the first colour you would like in Excel 2007, then click "Modify" then click the "Custom" tab.

Write the numbers which appear next to "Red, Green and Blue". These are the RGB codes for the colour.

Repeat for nine other colours you would like in Excel 2007.

Open Excel 2007 then click the "Page layout" tab.

Click the "Colours" button on the left of the tab, then click "Create new theme colours".

Click the button next to "Text/Background - Dark 1" then click "More colours". Click the "Custom" tab and enter the RGB codes for the first colour.

Repeat for the remaining nine colours. Leave "Hyperlink" and "Followed hyperlink" as they are.

Type a name such as "Excel 03 colours" at the bottom of the panel then click "Save".

Click the "Theme" button then click "Save current theme".

Save the theme in an easy to access location (such as the desktop) with the name "Excel 03 colours".

You can now load your "Excel 03 colours" into any computer with Excel 2007 by clicking the "Page layout" tab then clicking "Themes" then "Browse for themes". Go to the location where the "Excel 03 colours" theme is stored and double-click it.

Note that your ten Excel 2003 colours are now at the top row of the colour palettes for fill, text colour, etc. Shading variants of the ten colours are automatically generated and displayed below your chosen colours.

Also note that although the "Standard colours" on the fill and text colour panels appear to be the same as Excel 2003 colours, they are all different except for the bright yellow and bright red. All other "standard" colours will be altered if saved into Excel 2003 format.

Learn more at the T7 Training Systems blog: www.T7.net.au/blog