[Solved] Determine the colour I chose in a cell

[nj2k25]

Hi,

When I'm selecting a colour (UK spelling) for a font or background in a cell, I can currently see no way of knowing which colour I chose when I want to fill in data for another cell using the same colour. If I hover over the "A" button, it just says "Font Colour". I think it'd be better if it said which colour this font was, or background, and if I click on this "A" button to open the grid of colours, it doesn't show me which colour I selected in the cell I currently have selected.

I'm not an expert on coding, and am also assuming this issue hasn't been brought up before (but might be a regular issue?), so wanted to post this as a suggestion here.

Cheers

[FJCC]

It is possible to see the background and font colors of a cell, though not as conveniently as I would like. Select the cell and then bring up the cell formatting dialog with the menu Format -> Cells or the keys Ctrl + 1. You can see the background color on the Background tab and the font color on the Font Effects tab.

[MrProgrammer]

When I'm selecting a colour (UK spelling) for a font or background in a cell

I will guess that you are using Calc, though other components also support a grid of cells.

If I hover over the "A" button …

I will guess that you are referring to the Formatting toolbar. When you use it, you are performing direct formatting, applying attributes by individual steps. There is a much easier way to do your work which avoids many of the difficulties people have when they use direct formatting.

I [can't determine] which colour I chose when I want to [aapply it to] another cell ….

If the goal is to apply the same color to multiple cells, it is better to format using styles. You can define a style with the color (and other attributes) you want, then apply the style to your cells. This ensures that those cells have a consistent formatting, and for this situation, that they all use the same color. If the color needs to be changed, you do that once in the style definition and all of the cells which use that style are automatically updated. With direct formatting you would have to edit every cell that used the color. You can even select a cell with direct formatting and use its attributes to create a style so you can apply those attributes to other cells.
Calc_Guide: Accessing and applying styles

… wanted to post this as a suggestion here.

This is a user-to-user forum. Developers don't look at these discussions, and users here can't change OpenOffice.

[Zizi64]

It is better to format using styles.

+1

[Zizi64]

Try the LibreOffice (LO). The Calc in the LO can show the applied color. (If it is available on the currently used pallette. You must remember which pallette have you used). And it can show some recently used colors (independently from the pallettes).

Show the applied color.jpg (51 KiB) Viewed 3582 times

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...Or use the Cell Styles in the Libreoffice (too). The Styles are the most valuable feature of the AOO and LO

[nj2k25]

Thanks for all these helpful replies. I'll try LibreOffice as it looks like the more straightforward option, as long as I'm using the right pallette by the sounds of it.