WORD 2003 color fill button does not allow selection

[unicorn]

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.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

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

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.

 

[unicorn]

No, it is not selected.

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




stopped.

 

[Treesy]

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!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

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.

 

[unicorn]

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]

Were you using the Highlighter or shading?

 

[Treesy]

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.

 

[Treesy]

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]

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.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The Shading Color and Border Color buttons are on the Tables and Borders
toolbar. Of course, you can also use the Borders and Shading dialog.

 

[TAZ]

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??

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

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?

 

[Simon W]

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]

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).

 

[Simon W]

No, I'm not remembering Excel. (It still works in Excel).

I have been using Fill Color in Word text ever since we bought Office 2003
and when I say that it definitely worked in Word text on this machine, I mean
DEFINITELY.

There is no question about it and the other people on this thread who have
said the same thing are absolutely right.

We have other business machines here with Office 2003 installed and it still
works on them (they haven't had the Office updates). So if you want proof, I
will send you a screenshot!

Simon.