Follow-Ups to Answer from Expert Bob Umlas

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Rohn wrote at 2007-12-15 08:29:05
Well that is not completely correct.  The old colors are still there, just hard to find.



If you look in the highlighter and font colors drop down dialog you see the (euchy) theme colors, and below that a "palette" of 10 of the old "standard" colors.  Below that there is a "More Colors" button.  That button displays the old "Standard" color wheel and the "Custom" color rainbow.



If you are willing to search for them, the old colors are still there.  But I agree, that creating a worksheet with them and using the format painter may be easier.  



Too bad that M$ didn't bother to create a new "Standard Theme" that used the old standard colors.  You know that themes may be from documents so that they can be shared by the other Office 2007 apps and other people.  Maybe some one  out there will create a theme and upload it to the MS site so others can download it.



PS If you check in Word 2007, you will see that the Highlighter function still uses the old color pallet, while the character color function uses the new themes colors.  So much for application suite consistency.

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AltNrg4U wrote at 2007-12-17 12:56:44
Another method might be to save the pallate in the Personal.xls file.  This will open automatically when you open Excel (but I don't believe it works if you open Excel by double clicking a file).  



You would have to find a way to store the pallate as a macro.  I do not know how to do that without a little further research though.  This does have the benefit of opening it from your menu or toolbar though.

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King Keepo wrote at 2009-06-01 14:25:07
You could also create a new Theme and set up the old 40 Excel colors, then apply it retrospectively.



You should be able to match colors from the old Excel doc with the color palette of Excel.

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Greeman wrote at 2009-07-20 02:44:21
An option is to find out the RGB of the standard 40 colours in Excel 2003, then create a custom "New Cell Style" that enables you to apply the Excel 2003 color as a fill to cells in 2007.

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David Loughridge wrote at 2010-01-27 16:05:49
When an old version Excel file is opened in 2007 and you want to continue using the old colors, I found a work around. It's not great, but it does work.



1. Click on the cell with the color you want.

2. Click on the Fill Color button.

3. Select More Colors....

4. Click on the Custom tab.

5. Click OK.



The color will show up on the Fill Color palette under Recent Colors.

It will only stay there as long as the file is open and will not show in other files that are open. Go figure.

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Excel Helper wrote at 2010-01-30 01:33:29
Once you start creating workbooks with the Excel 2007 theme based colors, you will run into the opposite problem; where users of previous versions will not see the same colors you do.  Excel converts the new colors back to the 56 color 2003 palette automatically.  



This palette can be modified in Excel 2007 by going to Office Button > Excel Options > Save (option in left sidebar) > Colors… button.  Update the palette with colors used in your 2007 workbook.  This is a tedious process because you have to enter the RGB values for each new theme color.  



The tool from excelcampus.com at the following link automates the entire process and works on multiple workbooks.  There is also a detailed explanation there.



http://excelcampus.com/tools/color-palette-conversion

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Jeff wrote at 2010-07-21 18:54:59
Go to Microsoft Button, Excel Options,

Save.

The copy colors from other workbook comes  up when you press the button that says colors.

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T00LSMITH wrote at 2010-09-30 18:07:06
Obviously, this isn't really good.  Perhaps someone has made a theme including most of the original 40 colors?  I still hope I can find one.  Of the old 40 color palette, I found myself using the pastels for backgrounds and the bright opaque colors for lettering.  I think I will probably attempt to make a theme using these.  I had little use for the darker colors except black or the very very bright colors.  The existing themes in Office 2007 concentrate too much on "complementary colors".  What I often need is CONTRAST to highlight data.  As usual, Microsoft is one-size-fits-all...  

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ericav wrote at 2011-01-29 12:32:14
Here is a useful thread to address this question:



http://forums.techarena.in/ms-office-support/1067716.htm

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