What it does
Loops through common cell fill colors (default is no fill->yellow->orange->red->purple->green) for all selected cells, based on the fill color of the top-left cell.

Up to five colors can be customized using the Highlight Color Picker macro or the Assign Macro Defaults macro.

When to use it
Any time you want to highlight one or more cells using one of your five favorite/pre-selected colors, this is is an easy way to toggle through and apply them.

Why to use it
It’s easier than quicker than using the mouse, especially when you leverage keyboard shortcuts – it’s like six shortcuts in one.

Default shortcut
Ctrl+y

Other Details

• Category: Formatting / Colors
• Difficult: 1/5
• Usage/frequency: 5/5
• Automation factor: 2/5 (estimated 3 seconds saved each time used)
• Type: Shortcut
• Date added: 11/11/2017
• Tags: Cell fill color, cell highlight, toggle

Related Macros
Highlight Color Picker
Assign Macro Defaults

Other Articles
None

None

Prerequisites
Select the cell or cells you wish to highlight or change the fill color for.  The cells do not have to be contiguous.

Instructions
With your intended cells selected, run the Toggle Cell Highlight macro.  It will loop through your five pre-defined colors and back to no-fill.  That’s it!

To change the five default colors, there are two options:

1. Use the Highlight Color Picker.
   1. Set a cell fill to the color you want to use as a favorite/toggle.  Run the Highlight Color Picker macro.  The number code will be displayed with the instructions (every color has a unique color code value in Excel).
   2. In the text box, enter X, then a space, then the color text to display, then a space, then DEFAULT# where # is the corresponding picker # (1 through 5).  Example: If the cell color has a code of 16737843, entering “X Blue DEFAULT1” would set the toggle and picker value to “1: 16737843-Blue” and you would just enter 1 in the picker to set that color, or use the Toggle Cell Highlight macro for that as the first toggle value.
2. Use the Assign Macro Defaults macro.
   1. Run the Assign Macro Defaults macro.  It will take a few seconds to export all default values to a new sheet in the active workbook.
   2. Search for “Toggle Cell Highlight” in the newly created sheet.  Follow the instructions in the cell comments to set one or more default highlight colors.
   3. Run the Assign Macro Defaults macro again to process the changes.