kelly wrote:
hi. this is driving me crazy and slowing me down....

nothing happens when i select the cell/row and click the bucket. the
bucket is available, but all the colours are muted out. I can fill if
i go to the menu, format/borders and shading/change to cell and
select the color there.

thanks for your help

The bucket (Fill button) works only with drawing objects, made with the
tools on the Drawing toolbar. Although it may not be obvious, a text box
from the Insert Text Box menu item is also a drawing object. But tables
are not drawing objects, so the Fill tool doesn't work with them. As you
found, the shading tools in Format Borders & Shading do work in tables, as
well as in regular text.

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Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org