XL: Toolbar Button Colors Appear Incorrectly

• Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 5.0, 5.0c
• Microsoft Excel for Windows NT, version 5.0
• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, version 7.0

SYMPTOMS

When you create custom toolbar buttons in Microsoft Excel, you may notice that some of the colors applied to custom toolbar buttons appear incorrectly when you do any of the following:

• View them on another computer

  -or-

• Switch to a different video driver on the same computer

  -or-

• Exit and restart Microsoft Excel

CAUSE

This problem may occur when you create toolbar buttons while using a video driver that uses "color correction."

WORKAROUNDS

• If you have not yet created your toolbar buttons, or if your button images were not created from an outside source (such as Paintbrush), make sure that you are using a 16 color video driver that does not use color correction when you create or update the button images. The standard VGA video driver included with Microsoft Windows meets these criteria.
• If you have already created your custom toolbar buttons using images stored as bitmaps (in Paintbrush, for example), you may be able to follow these steps to correct a button image:

  1. Copy the image from its original source.

  2. While in Customize mode, select the toolbar button whose image you

        want to replace and click it with the alternate mouse button (usually
        the right mouse button).
  

  3. From the shortcut menu, choose Paste Button Image.

  4. Use the alternate mouse button to click the same toolbar button

        again. From the shortcut menu, choose Edit Button Image.
  

  5. In the Button Editor, choose OK.

  6. Copy the image from its original source again.

  7. Use the alternate mouse button to click the toolbar button and choose

        Paste Button Image from the shortcut menu.
  

  The button image may now appear correctly. Note that the change may only be temporary: your buttons may revert to the incorrect colors when you exit and restart Microsoft Excel. If this occurs, use the first workaround, shown above.

• Contact the manufacturer of your video driver and ask whether they have a newer video driver that uses the desired resolution and number of colors and that does not use color correction.

MORE INFORMATION

Some video drivers designed for Microsoft Windows, particularly video drivers that display 256 or more colors, use a process called "color correction" to determine which colors to use on the screen.

This process may cause colors to be displayed incorrectly in custom toolbar buttons. This error is usually very subtle: for example, a dark red color may change to a lighter red color.

Common color changes that are caused by a video driver using color correction include the following:

   Old Color          Color Changes To
   ------------------------------------
   Dark Red           Light Red
   Dark Green         Light Green
   Really Dark Blue   Dark Blue
   Dark Magenta       Light Magenta
   Light Blue         Really Light Blue