Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements.
The color index number represents the position of a particular color on
the sample palette. To view the default palette, click
Cells on the
Format menu, and then click the
Pattern tab. The number is incremented from left-to-right and then down. On the default palette, black has the index number of 1, and cyan has a color index of 8.
Note This macro prints a sample of 56 colors even though later versions of Excel support many more colors.
Sample Visual Basic procedure
Sub ColorIndexList()
' Begin error trapping.
On Error GoTo Done
Range("A1").Select
' Put the word Color in active cell.
ActiveCell.Formula = "Color"
' Put the words Color Index Number one cell to right of active cell.
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 1).Formula = "Color Index Number"
' Select one cell down from active cell.
ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Activate
' Begin loop from 1 to 56.
For xColor = 1 To 56
' Apply color and pattern properties to active cell.
With ActiveCell.Interior
.ColorIndex = xColor
.Pattern = xlSolid
.PatternColorIndex = xlAutomatic
End With
' Put color index in cell to right of active cell.
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 1).Formula = xColor
' Select next cell down.
ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Activate
' Increment For loop.
Next xColor
Done:
End Sub