What does 'cell("color",A1)' do?

[Guest]

We were looking to take a look at the background color of a cell. I saw a
lot of references to http://www.cpearson.com/excel/colors.htm in other posts.
Is it true that you cannot access a cells color without using VBA?

This is the information I found in the help:
CELL(info_type,reference)
Info_type is a text value that specifies what type of cell information you
want.

"color" Returns 1 if the cell is formatted in color for negative values;
otherwise returns 0 (zero). {Unfortunately I don't understand what this
means.}
If anyone can clue me in as to what this might be used for, or better yet
how I can examine a cell’s background without breaking into VBA, I would be
most appreciative

 

[Anne Troy]

That color has to do with the formatting of the cell under Format-->Cells
and formatting negative numbers to show as, for instance, red instead of
"auto" or black. It has nothing to do with cell fill color or font colors.
No, to my knowledge, you can't do anythign with cell colors without VBA. To
my knowledge, about the best reference you'll find is here:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/colors.htm
*******************
~Anne Troy

www.OfficeArticles.com
www.MyExpertsOnline.com

 

[Biff]

No, to my knowledge, you can't do anythign with cell colors without VBA.

Yes, it's possible but a VBA UDF or some other VBA procedure is both easier
and more reliable (if you know VBA !)

Specifically, Get.Cell can be used for SOME types of color analysis.

I'm not a big fan of calculations based on colors! This can lead to
incorrect results as changing a cells font or fill color does not trigger an
event and is not dynamic. And then there's the issue of conditional
formatting!

Biff