Applying Shading, Colour and Borders
You can use these to enhance the overall appearance and to improve its readability.

• You can apply these enhancements using the pattern tab in the format cells dialog box or by using the borders and colour icons on the formatting toolbar.
• You can apply colour to the background of a cell or range or to cell contents.
• You can apply patterns to the background of a cell or range.
• You can apply borders to all the cells in a worksheet or only to selected cells.

Shade cells with solid colours

• Select the cells you want to apply shading to.
• To apply the most recently selected colour click Fill Colour on the Formatting toolbar.
• To apply a different colour, click the arrow next to Fill Colour
• Click a colour on the palette.
• Or Alt + O for format menu then arrow key to cells and press enter
• Arrow key to the Pattern control Tab
• Tab to the cell-shading colour
• Arrow key to the colour required and then press enter
• Tab to the OK button and press enter

Shade cells with patterns

• Select the cells you want to apply shading to.
• On the Format menu, click Cells,
• Click the Patterns tab. To include a background colour with the pattern, click a colour in the Cell shading box.
• Click the arrow next to the Pattern box,
• Click the pattern style and colour you want.

If you do not select a pattern colour, the pattern is black.

• Or Alt + O for format menu
• Arrow key to cells and press enter
• Arrow key to the Pattern control Tab
• Tab to the cell-shading colour
• Arrow key to the colour required and then press enter
• Press Alt + P for the pattern box to appear
• Arrow key to the pattern required and press enter.
• Tab to the OK button and press enter

Remove shading

• Select the cells you want to remove shading from.
• On the Formatting toolbar, select the arrow next to Fill Colour
• Click No Fill.
• Or press F10 then ctrl + tab to formatting toolbar
• Arrow key to the arrow next to the fill colour
• Down arrow to no fill and press enter

Apply Borders

• Apply borders to cells select the cells you want to add borders to.
• To apply the most recently selected border style, click Borders on the Formatting toolbar.
• To apply a different border style, click the arrow next to Borders
• Click a border on the palette.
• To apply additional border styles, click Cells on the Format menu
• Click the Border control tab.
• Click the line style you want,
• Click a button to indicate the border placement.

To apply borders to selected cells that contain rotated text, use the Outline and inside buttons on the Border tab. The borders are applied to the edges of the cells, which are rotated to the same degree as the rotated text.

• Or press Alt + O for format menu
• Arrow key to cells and enter
• Arrow key to border control tab
• Tab to border required and enter
• Tab to style
• Arrow to require style and enter
• Tab to colour
• Arrow key to required colour and enter
• Tab to OK button and enter

Remove borders

• Select the cells you want to remove borders from
• On the Formatting toolbar select the arrow next to Borders
• Select none on the palette.
• If typing in a cell and you want to start a new line of text press Alt + Enter