The company I work for uses Excel to record meeting minutes, and this then
forms the basis of subsequent meeting minutes. Changes made during each
meeting are manually highlighted by means of a formatting change, such as a
colour change to indicate an added note. This means before each meeting, the
old minute has the colour changed to standard, and as we enter new
comments/notes, we have to select these and change the colour (it works but
is not an effective way).

How can I have Excel do this automatically, i.e. change the colour of new
entries/changes?

I have tried the Tracking Changes tool but it just leaves a marker where
there have been changes, and I have to place the cursor over each cell to see
the changes.

Well, you could do it with some VBA coding. Could set up buttons or drawing
shapes as buttons with these macros attached to them for control.

I'd use some code with the Workbook_Open() event to set a flag to tell it
NOT to shade cells as they're selected when it's opened. Here are the
various pieces:

For the Workbook_Open() event:
Help getting it into the workbook event section:
http://www.jlathamsite.com/Teach/WorkbookCode.htm

Private Sub Workbook_Open()
'prevents immediately starting
'to shade cells every time
'you open the workbook
RecordingMinutes = False
End Sub

Then some Worksheet_SelectionChange() event processing to shade cells as you
select them. You would need this in each sheet's code where you want shading
to take place automatically.
Help getting it into the worksheet event section:
http://www.jlathamsite.com/Teach/WorksheetCode.htm

Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
'some color codes
'Light Green = 34
'Light Turquois (teal) = 35
'Light Yellow = 36
'Light Blue = 37

If RecordingMinutes = True Then
Target.Interior.ColorIndex = 37
End If
End Sub

Finally, some general purpose code to declare the flag that controls whether
shading happens or not and to allow you to clear all existing shading and set
up to start auto-shading, plus a routine to 'manually' turn it off.

Help for general code entry:
http://www.jlathamsite.com/Teach/Excel_GP_Code.htm

Public RecordingMinutes As Boolean

Sub ClearExistingShading()
Dim WhereWasI As Range

Set WhereWasI = ActiveCell
Cells.Select
Selection.Interior.ColorIndex = xlNone
WhereWasI.Select
RecordingMinutes = True
End Sub
Sub TurnOffShading()
RecordingMinutes = False
End Sub





"Justin" wrote:

The company I work for uses Excel to record meeting minutes, and this then
forms the basis of subsequent meeting minutes. Changes made during each
meeting are manually highlighted by means of a formatting change, such as a
colour change to indicate an added note. This means before each meeting, the
old minute has the colour changed to standard, and as we enter new
comments/notes, we have to select these and change the colour (it works but
is not an effective way).

How can I have Excel do this automatically, i.e. change the colour of new
entries/changes?

I have tried the Tracking Changes tool but it just leaves a marker where
there have been changes, and I have to place the cursor over each cell to see
the changes.