I forgot there are 10 duplicate colours in the default palette, in the
bottom two rows of the 56 colour palette. These are sometimes known as the
chart colours although they can also be applied to shapes, and to cells with
code. These rows are not visible in the 40 colour drop-down palette in
XL2003 and earlier.

Following customizes 10 of the 16 chart colours to avoid any duplicates in
the default palette. Note too the chart colours are numbered consecutively
from 17-32 (colorIndexes in the rest of the palette are not consecutive). As
mentioned previously you can customize any/all the palette colours, you
might want to look at the top row, which being quite dark are not easily
distinguished.

Sub CustDupClrs()
Dim i As Long
Dim pal, arrIdx, arrVal
arrIdx = Array(18, 20, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
arrVal = Array(10976211, 16443312, 14977173, 10048758, _
57059, 11004942, 14287066, 204, 6204972, 16750899)

pal = ActiveWorkbook.Colors
For i = 0 To UBound(arrIdx)
pal(arrIdx(i)) = arrVal(i)
Next
ActiveWorkbook.Colors = pal
End Sub

Regards,
Peter T



"Peter T" <peter_t@discussions wrote in message
...
If I follow, and if your actual data sample looks roughly like your sample
(numbers increasing across and down the table), maybe you don't need to
customise any colours at all. Try the following -

Sub test()
Dim idx As Long
Dim rng As Range, cel As Range
Set rng = Range("A1:Z80") ' << change to suit
For Each cel In rng
With cel
idx = (.Value - 1) Mod 56 + 1
.Interior.ColorIndex = idx
End With
Next
End Sub

If any of the cells might be empty or zero, change
idx = (.Value - 1) Mod 56 + 1
to
idx = (.Value) Mod 56 + 1

If any numbers 57 to 80 are adjacent to numbers exactly 56 less, this idea
won't be quite right. Only you'll know if it can be easily adapted though,
eg say by changing the Mod number to something less than 56.

You can of course customize the 56 colour palette, either with code or
manually.

Regards,
Peter T



"ker_01" wrote in message
...
I have a (26 x 60+) grid of values . I need to be able to visually
identify
repeat values, so I'm looping through the cells and assigning a color
based
on the value. To be as efficient as possible, I decided to use the cell
value
to drive the color code directly; I don't care what number gets what
color,
as long as adjacent numbers don't get the same (or similar) color.

The grid values range from 1 to 80 (integers). Adjacent cells are very
likely to have adjacent values (e.g. 1 and 2, 2, and 3) up to a spread of
about 4 (or so) at one corner of the grid.

A B C D E F G H
1. 1 1 2 2 3 4 4 5
2. 1 1 2 3 3 4 5 6
3. 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 7
4. 2 3 3 4 5 6 6 8
5. 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 8
etc

so I'm trying to find intervals of RGB values based on the cell value so
that I can create the spectrum (repeat colors are fine, as long as there
are
at least a few colors inbetween for visual separation). I'm trying
different
versions of the code below, where I'm modifying the multiplier used (5,
10,
15, 20, etc) with sVal but I'm still getting situations where similar
values
(such as 1 and 2) end up with the same color (does Excel round to the
nearest
color on the pallet?).

I'm not real familiar with the RGB color wheel as it relates to the
numbers
and whatever colors Excel then uses, so I'm looking for advice on how to
fix
that one line to ensure that I won't have adjacent cells with the same
color
but different numbers.

Many thanks,
Keith

Sub ColorizeRanges()
Dim iCol As Long

For iRow = 3 To 41
For iCol = 2 To 27
uCol = ColLetter(iCol) 'separate function, returns column C to AA
sVal = (Sheet5.Range(uCol & iRow).Value)

'this is the key line:
Sheet5.Range(uCol & iRow).Interior.Color = RGB(250 - ((20 * sVal)
Mod 250), 250 - ((35 * sVal) Mod 250), ((20 * sVal) Mod 250))

Next
Next
End Sub