Static font color

[stevequinney]

Hi all.
I'm a newby to OpenOffice from Excel.
If I am working on a spreadsheet and want to change the font color of a number of entries in different parts of the spreadsheet, it seems I have to keep going back to the "Font Color" icon for each entry. For example, if the entries are currently black and I want to make them red, is it possible to make the "Font Color" icon stay on red until I need to change it to a different color? It's a pain having to go back to the icon to change the color for each entry.
Thanks for any help you can give me.

[jrkrideau]

The recommended way in Calc is to use a Style. Styles are easier to use and tend to make for a more stable document.

Ignore the Font Colour Icon. In fact, I would say that you should never use an icon button to format anything in Calc or Writer. All formatting is better done using Styles.


https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Docume ... _Templates.

[Zizi64]

The recommended way in Calc is to use a Style.

+1


The Styles are the most valuable feature of the AOO/LO.

[stevequinney]

Thanks for your replies both of you, but having looked up "STYLE" in the help pages, it does not make any sense to me. It seems to be far more complicated than I need. I simply want to change the color of a number of fields (which will be in different cells each month) spread around the spreadsheet, from (for example) red to black (or any other color I may choose). I do not want to have to assign a complicated formula to each cell with specific colors in the formula. I could of course be completely mis-understanding what the help page is saying! Is OpenOffice capable of doing this?
Thanks again,
Steve

[Zizi64]

A cell style is nothing more than adjusted properties related to the cell object, with a specific name.

You can apply a style by a double click on the style name in the style list. A cell style is nothing more than adjusted properties related to the cell object, with a specific name.
The cell styles have a hierarchic property. They can inherit their properties from the parent style, but you can modify the inherited properties of the child style

[robleyd]

See the Wiki page on creating styles in Calc

[stevequinney]

Thanks again for all the replies, really appreciated, but it still makes no sense to me.
I'm giving up on Open Office and going to use Libreoffice, which is far simpler and does what I want without the complications of formulas and parent/child situations.
Once again, thanks for your time and effort trying to explain.
Steve.

[RoryOF]

I suspect you will have the same or similar problems in LibreOffice - it and OpenOffice are closely related.

[stevequinney]

Thanks RoryOF for your reply, but I've used Libreoffice and it does exactly what I want and it's so easy.
Steve