Possible to shade cell slightly but that only shows up on screen +not printout? [XL2003]

[StargateFanNotAtHome]

I have a form that is built in Excel that is quite challenging to fill
in because fillable cells aren't always readily apparent. Since it's
a form that although filled out on the computer is to be printed out,
it has many empty cells that do not require data entry and that are
just the "background" white of the document. Is there a feature in
Excel that would allow us to colour in those "background" parts of the
form in something like a light grey that only shows up on the screen
as that colour yet that prints out as clear of colour (white, in other
words) so that it looks like an ordinary page without the grey?

Thanks. D

 

[Bob I]

The "draft" option in the print dialog does that.

 

[StargateFanNotAtHome]

The "draft" option in the print dialog does that.

Wow, was that ever tough to find! First off, as everyone most likely
knows, the print dialogue box can vary a lot depending on printer
drivers. I was so very dubious about the above but went and searched
through all the many tabs of the 3 printers that I have installed but
I didn't find anything that helped. Draft paper doesn't do the job,
so discarded that. I persevered, however. Nothing worse than to be
given a small hint of what to do but not how to find it! <g>

Finally, after going back to searching the archives, this ng post gave
me an inkling at least on how to get to this draft option:
http://groups.google.ca/group/micro...n&lnk=gst&q=draft+page+setup#5f72536f2c0e374f
The responder asks: "At File>Page Setup>Sheet have you go "Black and
White" or "Draft Quality" checkmarked? "

Sure enough, under Page Setup (vs. print properties), there is an
option to tick on "Draft Quality" that I'd never seen or used before.
Guess it's never come up <g>. I tried that. Unfortunately, all it
did was take away _all_ the lines and all the cell colours that were
needed in the printout and did nothing to help fill the form out in
terms of what is visible on the screen. It actually made the screen
version much more difficult to work with than the initial problem!
<g> Too funny.

Does anyone know if there is an option or setting somewhere that would
mimic a cell background colour that would affect only what is seen on
the screen but not the printout? That would allows us to leave _only_
the fillable cells as white with all other non-fillable cells with
some sort of colour that wouldn't show up in the printout but didn't
affect the cells that _do_ have background colours that need to show
up in the finall hard copy.

Thank you! D

 

[Bob I]

Perhaps instead, put a default "X" in the cells that require input?

 

[StargateFan]

I have a form that is built in Excel that is quite challenging to fill
in because fillable cells aren't always readily apparent. Since it's
a form that although filled out on the computer is to be printed out,
it has many empty cells that do not require data entry and that are
just the "background" white of the document. Is there a feature in
Excel that would allow us to colour in those "background" parts of the
form in something like a light grey that only shows up on the screen
as that colour yet that prints out as clear of colour (white, in other
words) so that it looks like an ordinary page without the grey?

Thanks. D

I found the answer that works well enough.

I knew there must be some way to get non-default cell colours in Excel
but all these years I never knew how (stumbled upon some really kewl
colours in a spreadsheet last year).

I kept searching and I found a reference that led me to TOOLS >
OPTIONS > COLOR where we can "overwrite" one of the available colours
to get a custom one (via fine-tuning the colour wheel in the custom
tab of the COLOR options box that comes up). Through trial and error
found a colour that showed up on the screen but didn't impact the
printout much as I used a very light grey. This seemed the best
compromise.

It's just, imagine, a contract worker comes along and heavily modifies
your spreadsheet ... I mean, the gall, right? But the other side of
the coin is that I'm the admin for the dept and they all come to me to
email them this request form and every single one of them have had
troubles with it as I've been having to correct where the information
should go before sending the request offsite for processing. Not
good.

By merging some cells, locking up the ones that don't need to be
filled, colouring the ones very slightly that do, and then protecting
the sheet without a password, the form is now as user friendly as it
can be without my having impacted the spreadsheet in any major way.
It's all cosmetic. Yet the users will be able to use it much more
easily.

Thanks. D

 

[ebloch]

Another way is to duplicate the form in another section of the worksheet and
make all values in the duplicate equal to the original NOT with the shade
formatting you want in the original.

Then define a print range equal to the duplicate form so that is what gets
printed, not the one you fill in and see on screen.

The duplicate could be locked and the sheet protected so one cannot change
the duplicate's formatting.

Eric

 

[StargateFan]

Another way is to duplicate the form in another section of the worksheet and
make all values in the duplicate equal to the original NOT with the shade
formatting you want in the original.

Then define a print range equal to the duplicate form so that is what gets
printed, not the one you fill in and see on screen.

The duplicate could be locked and the sheet protected so one cannot change
the duplicate's formatting.

Eric

What a great idea! I never would have thought of that one. The
logistics would be a pain the first time around but definitely a
technique to keep in mind.

Thanks. D