[Solved] Change color of in-cell highlight

Discuss the spreadsheet application
Post Reply
MFL_2024
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2024 5:21 pm

[Solved] Change color of in-cell highlight

Post by MFL_2024 »

Picture showing cell "B2" as the "in-cell highlighted" cell.
This is just as you move from cell to cell, no conditional formatting, nothing. I click on a cell and the color boarder of the cell I want to be able to change from black to any other color. How do I change the color from black to any other color in Open Office?
Sometimes we use Libre. Is it the same way in Libre or different?

Thanks
Attachments
cell reference standout.jpg
cell reference standout.jpg (9.28 KiB) Viewed 198 times
Last edited by MrProgrammer on Sun Oct 19, 2025 2:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Tagged ✓ [Solved]
Open Office 4.1.15
Windows Home Edition 10.0.19045 Build 19045
Libre v24.2.12 (X86)
erbsenzahl
Volunteer
Posts: 264
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2017 8:23 am
Location: Germany

Re: How to change color of in-cell highlight

Post by erbsenzahl »

MFL_2024 wrote: Fri Oct 17, 2025 5:52 pmIs it the same way in Libre or different?
IMHO you can change the colour only in LibreOffice, not in OpenOffice.
.
CalcCellFocusAppearance_Customization.png
CalcCellFocusAppearance_Customization.png (52.29 KiB) Viewed 184 times
LibreOffice current versions 24.x/25.x and OpenOffice 4.1.15
on LinuxMint 21 - 22 Mate, W10-64 pro
User avatar
MrProgrammer
Moderator
Posts: 5346
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2010 7:57 pm
Location: Wisconsin, USA

Re: Change color of in-cell highlight

Post by MrProgrammer »

MFL_2024 wrote: Fri Oct 17, 2025 5:52 pm Picture showing cell "B2" as the "in-cell highlighted" cell.
Should you, MFL_2024, or others who visit this topic want to search the forum or the web for solutions or workarounds, the term for the single cell with the thick black border is active cell. You will have more success with that search term than with in-cell highlighted.

The active cell may or may not be one of the highlighted cells. From your picture, it appears that your B2 cell is not highlighted even though it's the active cell. Cells are highlighted after being selected. You select cells when you want to perform an operation on them as a group, for example, setting their formatting properties. Some highlighting attributes (especially, the color) are controlled by your operating system, not by OpenOffice. I use MacOS and cannot tell you how to set highlighting attributes in Windows.
• If the active cell is not selected, it just has the thick black border.
• If the active cell is selected, in addition to the thick black border it will also have the highlighting color.

If the active cell is not selected, you can select it by clicking the cell while holding the Command key on MacOS or the Ctrl key on other platforms. If the active cell is selected, you can deselect it by clicking the cell while holding the Command key on MacOS or the Ctrl key on other platforms.
Mr. Programmer
AOO 4.1.7 Build 9800, MacOS 13.7.6, iMac Intel.   The locale for any menus or Calc formulas in my posts is English (USA).
MFL_2024
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2024 5:21 pm

Re: Change color of in-cell highlight

Post by MFL_2024 »

erbsenzahl:
Thanks for your help
I was able to change the color of the "cell focus" in Libre.
I figured out a work-around for Open Office. I changed the color of the grid lines to a contrasting color like red. Black which is the "cell focus" color now stands out better. If I use boarders in a calc sheet I will just use a different color boarder than the black or grid lines. I don't have a color printer so does not matter.
It works nicely.
Just what I needed - thanks!!

MrProgrammer:
Thanks for your help.
Yes, "in-cell highlighted" was all I could think of at the time of writing the post.
Yes, "Active Cell" or "Cell Focus".
Libre allows me to change the "Cell Focus" color which I did with erbsenzahl's help.
Open Office does not seem to have this feature that I can find but I was able to change the grid lines from black to red which contrasts nicely with the "cell focus" black.
"Active Cell", "In-Cell Highlighted" - what I meant was if you click on a cell you get a black board around the cell. I wanted to change the black boarder to a higher contrasting color from the grid lines.
I don't want to have to press a combination of keys to achieve my results.

Thanks again to both of you for your help. So much appreciated!!
Have a great weekend.
Open Office 4.1.15
Windows Home Edition 10.0.19045 Build 19045
Libre v24.2.12 (X86)
Post Reply