Fill Color in Excel (Shortcut)

Filling colors in cells in Excel could be quite useful.

It allows you to identify and highlight data, flag errors, or just make your data more visually appealing.

In this tutorial, I will give you the keyboard shortcut to fill color cells in Excel

Shortcut to Fill Color in Excel

Below is the keyboard shortcut to Fill Color in Excel:

ALT + H + H

The above keyboard shortcut would open the Fill Color menu from where you can choose any of the colors that you want to fill in the selected cells.

Fill Color menu in Excel - keyboard shortcut

Unfortunately, there is no keyboard shortcut that will allow you to quickly fill a specific color in the selected cell.

Once you have opened the fill color menu, you will have to use the arrow keys to navigate to the color that you want to fill and then use it

How to Use the Keyboard Shortcut to Fill Color in Excel

Below are the steps to use the above keyboard shortcut:

  1. Select the cell or range of cells in which you want to fill the color (you can even choose a non-contiguous range of cells)
  2. Use the above keyboard shortcut (Alt + H + H) to open the Fill Color menu. You need to press these keys one after the other
  3. Use the arrow keys to navigate within the Fill Color menu, and once you have selected the color that you want to use, hit the Enter key. Once the Fill Color menu is open, you can also use your mouse to select the color that you want to fill
Also read: How To Replace Blank Cells With 0 In Excel

Important Things to Know About Fill Color in Excel:

  • If you want to remove the color from some of the cells, first select the cells, open the Fill Color menu, and then click on ‘No Fill’
No fill color Option in Excel
  • If you want more color options (apart from the one that are already shown in the Fill Color menu, click on the ‘More Colors’ option)
More Colors option Excel
  • The color options that you see in the Fill Color menu are dependent on the based on the current theme that is applied in Excel. If you change the theme, these colors would accordingly change
  • You can also fill colors in a cell by using the Cell Styles option (it’s in the Home tab in the Cells group). When you click on the Cell Styles option, it shows you some of the pre-made cell formats that you can use (which also include different fill colors that you can use)
Cell Styles Option Excel
  • When you fill a color in a cell, it would not change based on the value of the cell. In case you want to change the color of the cell based on its value, you should use Conditional Formatting instead

Alternate Ways to Fill Color in Excel:

Since the keyboard shortcut to fill color in excel is not straightforward (as the best it does is open the fill color menu and you have to choose the color manually), you can also use the alternative way by using the ribbon and manually selecting the color.

Below are the steps to open the Fill menu and fill the color in the cells in Excel:

  1. Select the cells in which you want to fill the color
  2. Click the Home tab
  3. In the Font group, click on the Fill Color menu icon
Click on Home tab and then fill color
  1. Choose the color from the options
Fill Color menu in Excel - keyboard shortcut

Some Other Useful Fill Color Shortcuts

Here are some other ‘Fill Color’ related keyboard shortcuts that you will find useful.

To remove the color which is already applied on a cell or range of cells:

ALT + H + H + N

To get more colors option (in case you want more colors than the ones shown in the Fill Color menu)

ALT + H + H + M

Other Excel shortcuts you may also like:

Other Excel Tutorials You May Also Like:

I am a huge fan of Microsoft Excel and love sharing my knowledge through articles and tutorials. I work as a business analyst and use Microsoft Excel extensively in my daily tasks. My aim is to help you unleash the full potential of Excel and become a data-slaying wizard yourself.

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