Filling a Drawing Object

When you first insert a drawing object in Excel, it appears as an outline; sort of a stick drawing. You may want to change this by filling the object with either a color or a specific effect. Both of these are done using the Fill tool on the Drawing toolbar. (This is the one that looks like a bucket spilling paint.) To use the tool, select the object you want filled and then click the Fill tool. The object is then filled using the color shown in the bar at the bottom of the Fill tool.

If you want to change the color used for fills, you can do so by clicking on the down-arrow at the right of the Fill tool. This displays a palette of colors (forty of them) from which you can choose a color. (Click here to see a related figure.) If you don't like those colors, you can click on More Fill Colors (just underneath the palette) to pick any color you desire.

A neat feature of Excel is that you can also pick an effect to use for your fill. You do this by choosing Fill Effects at the bottom of the color palette. This displays the Fill Effects dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.) Using the controls in this dialog box (and on the other tabs in the dialog box), you can specify exactly what special effects you want applied to filling the shape. You can choose to use a gradient (where the fill blends in, from none to full) or apply a texture (such as wood or marble). You can also use any of a number of different patterns, or use your own picture for the fill. The different fill options allow you to make your graphics look quite impressive.