# Excel oddity, colour changing cells **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 11, 2010, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-oddity-colour-changing-cells/539041 "2010-05-11T13:34:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-oddity-colour-changing-cells/539041/1 "2010-05-11T13:34:10Z")
I have an excel sheet for recording test scores and grades where I’ve filled every other row with light gray for ease of reading. (One row per student, easy to follow a long row and not lose my place.) When I’m filling in scores excel sometimes takes it upon itself to change the cell in question from unfilled to filled. Deleting and retyping in the same cell gives the same result, but copying a cell from elsewhere works to get the right result and the right background. Anyone experience something similar and have any idea what excel is up to? ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-oddity-colour-changing-cells/539041/2 "2010-05-11T14:17:19Z")
Sometimes Excel decides to guess what you want and just do it. It’s nice when it’s right, but it usually isn’t. In your situation, I would probably just go through and type in what I need to and then use the format painter to fix the background problem. Select rows that you have colored corrected with your mouse or shift-arrow keys, and then click on the format painter button in the top left and then click on the offending rows to get them formatted the way you want. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-oddity-colour-changing-cells/539041/3 "2010-05-11T14:26:08Z")
You may find this page’s solution to shading every other row more to your liking than doing it manually: > **[Apply shading to alternate rows or columns in a worksheet - Microsoft Support](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/apply-shading-to-alternate-rows-or-columns-in-a-worksheet-a443b0f5-2025-42f6-9099-5de09c05e880?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us)** > > Highlight alternate rows or columns of data with colors or patterns to improve the readability of your Excel worksheets. Select the range of cells. On the Format menu, click Conditional Formatting. Under Condition 1, select Formula Is. In the data entry box, type =MOD(ROW(),2)=1. Click the Format button. In the Format Cells dialog box, click the Patterns tab. Select a light-blue color, and then click OK. In the Conditional Formatting dialog box, click OK. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-oddity-colour-changing-cells/539041/4 "2010-05-11T20:19:26Z")
If the background is merely cosmetic, I’d probably use the built in templates. If that’s already what you are doing, then, yeah, try Munch’s method. But, in my experience, Excel does not change anything if you use preformatted styles, rather than shading each cell individually (even if by formula). ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-oddity-colour-changing-cells/539041/5 "2010-05-12T05:37:03Z")
The other thing I would do is use Freeze Panes so I could always see column A, which presumably is the student name. Helps with the problem of scrolling across long worksheets and losing track of which row you’re supposed to be working on. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-oddity-colour-changing-cells/539041/6 "2010-05-12T06:35:22Z")
I’ve had Excel go off on a tangent before and do weird formatting stuff that I finally determined was a corrupted spreadsheet. Try copying the data, formulas, and formatting to another sheet and see if it persists (using paste special). ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-oddity-colour-changing-cells/539041/7 "2010-05-12T20:52:07Z")
Conditional formatting sounds good. I’m gonna try that when I redo the template.