XL98: Problems Using ColorIndex to Set Color of Borders (183022)

WORKAROUND

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements. The following example code uses the ColorIndex property to specify a color for the borders of a cell or a range of cells.

Left, Right, Top, and Bottom Borders

To use the ColorIndex property for these types of borders, set the ColorIndex property to the value you want, for example:

   ActiveCell.Borders(xlEdgeLeft).ColorIndex = 2
   ActiveCell.Borders(xlEdgeRight).ColorIndex = 3
   ActiveCell.Borders(xlEdgeTop).ColorIndex = 4
   ActiveCell.Borders(xlEdgeBottom).ColorIndex = 5

You can set all four borders to the same value by using a line of code similar to the following:

   ActiveCell.Borders.ColorIndex = 6

Inside Vertical and Inside Horizontal Borders

To use the ColorIndex property for these types of borders, set the ColorIndex property for the appropriate constant to the correct value, for example:

   Selection.Borders(xlInsideVertical).ColorIndex = 7
   Selection.Borders(xlInsideHorizontal).ColorIndex = 8

NOTE: When you use the xlInsideVertical constant, the selected range must contain at least two columns. When you use the xlInsideHorizontal constant, the selected range must contain at least two rows. If the selection does not contain the necessary number of columns or rows, you receive the following error message:

Run-time error '1004':
Unable to set the ColorIndex property of the Border class

Diagonal Up and Diagonal Down Borders

To use the ColorIndex property for these types of borders, first set the Weight property of the border, for example:

   With Selection.Borders(xlDiagonalUp)
       .Weight = xlThin
       .ColorIndex = 9
   End With

-or-

   Selection.Borders(xlDiagonalDown).Weight = xlMedium
   Selection.Borders(xlDiagonalDown).ColorIndex = 10

NOTE: If you use the ColorIndex property of the diagonal border before you set its Weight property, the ColorIndex property is ignored, and the border appears in the default color (black). If you do not set the Weight property, the border does not appear.

MORE INFORMATION

In Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition, if you run a macro with the following line of code

   MsgBox ActiveCell.Borders.Count

a message box with the number of borders for the active cell appears. By running this macro, you can determine that a cell contains six borders: left, right, top, bottom, diagonal up, and diagonal down. However, if you specify a color for all six borders by running a macro that uses the following line of code

   ActiveCell.Borders.ColorIndex = 3

the color for only the first four borders is changed. The color for the diagonal borders is not changed because no weight is specified for them. Note that you can use the workaround in this article to force the diagonal borders to appear.