How to Remove Background Color in Excel (5 Ways)

While working in Microsoft Excel we might need to change the whole background color in a spreadsheet. Sometimes we download a file and find there are various colors used for multiple purposes. Often the cells or heading are colored using conditional formatting. You might find it difficult to remove those colors from the background. But no more. In this article, I am going to share with you how to remove background color in excel.

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5 Effective Ways to Remove Background Color in Excel

In the following article, I have shared 5 simple and quick ways to remove background color in excel.

Suppose, we have a dataset of some Student’s Grade for different subjects. For multiple grades, various colors are used in the background. Now, we are going to remove those background colors using some simple features in excel.

1. Use Fill Color Feature to Remove Background Color in Excel

The simplest way to remove background color is by using the “No fill” feature of excel which removes all the color and white out all the chosen cells.

Steps:

• Firstly, select cells you want to remove background color. Here I have selected cells (D6:G10).
• While the cells are selected click the “Fill Color” icon from the home
• Therefore, from the drop-down menu press “No fill”.

• Finally, you will have cells remove the background color in excel.

Read More: [Fixed!] Background Color Not Changing in Excel (6 Solutions)

2. Utilize Clear Rules Option for Conditional Formatting to Remove Background Color

Especially in some cases, you will find cells with background color in a spreadsheet. Afterward using the “No Fill” feature won’t work in these cases. But I have a simple and easy solution for these types of circumstances. Follow the steps below-

Steps:

• Particularly, choose cells (D6:G10), and after that open the drop-down list of conditional formatting from the home ribbon.

• In short, go to Clear Rules > Clear Rules from Selected Cells.

• To this end, you will find the precious output removing the background color from all cells.

3. Perform Clear Formats Feature to Remove Background Color in Excel

Removing color from the background is mostly done before printing the page. You can use the “Clear Formats” feature of excel to remove background color.

Steps:

• Similarly, select cells (D6:G10) and go to your workbook’s home.
• While the cells are selected click “Editing” and choose “Clear Formats” from the “Clear” option.

• Thus, you will see all the selected cells have removed formats and as a result, the background color is also removed from the cells.

Read More: How to Change Background Color Based on Value in Excel

4. Use Format Cells Feature to Remove Background Color

Sometimes you might want to change the background of each cell to white color. It’s mostly known as removing color and making it white just like other cells. To do so-

Steps:

• In this case, choose cells from the data table. Here I have selected cells (D6:G10).
• Meanwhile, the cells are selected and press the right button of the mouse.

• Therefore, from the appearing different option press “Format Cells”.

• A new window will pop up named “Format Cells”.
• In short just click “Fill” and choose “No Color”.
• Press OK to continue.

• Thus, we can remove background color from cells in any workbook we want.

Read More: How to Make Picture Background Transparent in Excel (2 Methods)

5. Apply Excel VBA to Remove Background Color

You can also apply VBA code to remove background color in excel. If you are new to VBA code and eager to learn about it you can check this link. To remove background color follow the steps below-

Steps:

• Above all select cells (D6:G10) from which you want to remove color and press Alt+F11.

• A new window will appear named “Microsoft Visual Basic for Application”.
• Hence, open a “Module” from the “Insert” option.

• In the new module apply the following VBA code-

Sub RemovebackgroundColor()
Selection.Interior.Color = xlNone
End Sub

• Press the Run Sub button or use the keyboard shortcut F5 key to run the code.

• In conclusion, we got the desired output we are expecting. Simple isn’t it?

Read More: Excel VBA to Open Workbook in Background (2 Useful Examples)

Things to Remember

• When clearing format from cells to remove color, you may lose all the formats like font, and size of the text.

Conclusion

In this article, I have tried to cover all the effective ways to remove background color in Excel. Take a tour of the practice workbook and download the file to practice by yourself. Hope you find it helpful. Please inform us in the comment section about your experience. We, the Exceldemy team, are always responsive to your queries. Stay tuned and keep learning.

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