Fill Color is Greyed-out For Comments

[Will Simmons]

Running Excel 98 under OS 9.2.2 on a Power Mac beige G3 with 352 MB
Built-in memory.

The Help file says that I can use either the formatting or the Drawing
Toolbar to change the fill color of Comments (which is yellow now).

But, when I chose "Format Comment" the "Fill Color" choice box is greyed
out in *both* my Formatting and Drawing Toolbars.

What am I doing wrong ? TIA for any ideas.

-- Will--

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Running Excel 98 under OS 9.2.2 on a Power Mac beige G3 with 352 MB
Built-in memory.

The Help file says that I can use either the formatting or the Drawing
Toolbar to change the fill color of Comments (which is yellow now).

But, when I chose "Format Comment" the "Fill Color" choice box is greyed
out in *both* my Formatting and Drawing Toolbars.

What am I doing wrong ? TIA for any ideas.

If you select the text area inside the comment (i.e., the cursor is
flashing), the color picker will be greyed out. Click at the edge of the
comment (to select the comment object itself, rather than the text area)
and you should be able to choose your colors.

 

[Will Simmons]

If you select the text area inside the comment (i.e., the cursor is
flashing), the color picker will be greyed out. Click at the edge of the
comment (to select the comment object itself, rather than the text area)
and you should be able to choose your colors.

Fantastic. Thanks much, as usual.

But, why doesn't the online help for Comments say this, i.Êe., make the
distinction between clicking in the little band surrounding the comment
(rather than clicking inside the comment window), which then, as you say,
enables the "Fill Color" tool on the formatting toolbar ?

Incidentally, clicking inside the comment window enables the symbol for
Font Color on the Formatting toolbar, so I can choose a font color without
actually selecting the text itself, which is neat.

-- Will --

 

[JE McGimpsey]

But, why doesn't the online help for Comments say this, i.Êe., make the
distinction between clicking in the little band surrounding the comment
(rather than clicking inside the comment window), which then, as you say,
enables the "Fill Color" tool on the formatting toolbar ?

Probably because the authors of Help unjustifiably assume that the
metaphor is understood. A comment is an object attached to a cell that
contains, among other things, text. Actually, it contains a shape object
which contains a textframe which contains characters (text). The same
GUI metaphor applies to Textboxes, embedded charts, and other shapes.

OTOH, I'm not sure how I would write Help differently in this case in
order for it to be indexed efficiently. Even if the explanation was in
Help, where would you expect to see it pop up?

 

[Will Simmons]

Probably because the authors of Help unjustifiably assume that the
metaphor is understood. A comment is an object attached to a cell that
contains, among other things, text. Actually, it contains a shape object
which contains a textframe which contains characters (text). The same
GUI metaphor applies to Textboxes, embedded charts, and other shapes.

OTOH, I'm not sure how I would write Help differently in this case in
order for it to be indexed efficiently. Even if the explanation was in
Help, where would you expect to see it pop up?

I've gotta agree that it would be wasteful to go into basic concepts with
every example. But, why not use one of the current Help cross reference
systems ? If these basic GUI concepts were described in detail once
somewhere, they could be cross referenced by either (a) the "What do you
want to do ?" technique (e. g., "Learn more about the basic GUI concepts
involved in this item"); or (b) by the end-of-Help-item offer technique e.
g., "Click here To learn more about the basic GUI concepts involved in
this item."

Thanks again for the always lucid assistance.

-- Will --