[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I suspect you are remembering Excel, then, as I don't believe the Fill Color
button on the Drawing toolbar has ever worked on text (except in a text
box).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Simon W" Simon wrote in message
...

SUZANNE: There is definitely a glitch in Word 2003.

I too have had the problem where the FILL COLOR button worked on text (for
several years!) then suddenly it stopped working - i.e. the boxes on the
drop
down all became greyed out. I suspect this may have been caused by a
recently installed Office Update

The FILL COLOR button may well be intended to work only on Autoshapes, but
that is academic - the fact is it DEFINITELY worked for several years on
ordinary text. The same FILL COLOR button does (and always has) worked in
Excel 2003.

(And yes, I am aware that there is also a SHADING COLOR button which works
on text in Word 2003).

You might want to try the FILL COLOR button yourself in Excel 2003. Is the
drop down all greyed out?

Regards

Simon W. (from England)



"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

Okay, let's take it from the top again:

1. There are two commands (buttons) that use the same icon: Fill Color
and
Shading Color.

2. The Fill Color button is on the Drawing toolbar. It is used for
AutoShapes (including text boxes). If you don't have an AutoShape
selected,
this button is inactive.

3. The Shading Color button is on the Tables and Borders toolbar. It is
used
for text and tables. It should be active pretty much anytime, since it
will
by default (if you don't have text selected) shade the paragraph or
table
cell where the insertion point is located.

Now, what part of that is not working for you?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"TAZ" wrote in message
...
I also had the same problem suddenly occur. I reset the button to
ShadingColor paintcan (thank you for helping me find this!) and worked
fine
--- for a while, then the same 'no fill' appears. I can remove the
icon
and
reset button again. But this is a pain.

Did something else change in Word??

"Treesy" wrote:

Nevermind. I looked under "All Commands" and found the button for
ShadingColor and it has the picture of the paintcan. That button
works!!
Thank you.

Unicorn, I suggest you remove that button and reload the one called
"ShadingColor" listed under All Commands.

"Treesy" wrote:

Suzanne, I just re-read your earlier post when you said that the
fill
color
button on the drawing toolbar has the same icon as the shading
button
for
tables. While it doesn't explain why my button suddenly stopped
working, can
you tell me where that shading button is located? The only one I
could find
with the paintcan was on the drawing toolbar. I removed my button
and
reloaded it when the dropdown arrow stopped working so perhaps I
loaded the
incorrect button (which explains why I'm not getting any color
options).
When I'm in the Customize menu, where can I find the shading
button?

Thanks!

"Treesy" wrote:

I was using the button with the paintcan. I was using it to
shade a
cell
within a table. Like Unicorn mentioned, it worked for me
yesterday
morning
and then suddenly stopped working. ??? It works in Excel but
not in
my Word
2003.

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

Were you using the Highlighter or shading?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to
the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"unicorn" wrote in message
...
I can understand what you are saying.

But now there are 2 of us that were keying text in a
document
and used the
button for highlighting the text with color and it suddenly
stopped
working.
There is an issue here!

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

Fill Color and Line Color on the Drawing toolbar apply
only to
drawing
objects. To apply color to text and tables, you must use
borders and
shading. The Shading Color and Border Color buttons on the
Tables and
Borders toolbar have the same icons but a different
purpose.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups
to
the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Treesy" wrote in
message
news I am also having this problem. It was working this
morning
and now
I'm
also
getting the grayed out boxes with no colors. I also
don't
have High
Contrast
enabled. Everything else looks fine. If this helps,
before
I was
getting
the grayed out boxes with no color, the little arrow
that
opens the
button
up
wasn't working. I would click it and nothing would
happen.
Same with
all
the buttons that have those arrows. I removed the
non-functional
buttons
and
put them back on and they seem to be working again
except
now when
that
fill
button opens, it shows no color options. I tried
rebooting
as well.
Any
suggestions would be helpful.

Thank you!

"unicorn" wrote:

No, it is not selected.

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

Do you perhaps have High Contract selected in the
Accessibility
Options in
Windows Control Panel?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all
follow-ups
to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"unicorn" wrote
in
message

...
Word 2003 color fill button does not allow
selection
of a color.
The
panel
pops up but is all white boxes and does not allow
selection. it
is
like
this
on formatting and drawing toolbars. It was working
but
suddenly
it
stopped.