Greg

Could conditional Formatting be enough? There is no graduated fills but you
can use colours and patterns.

To format C3:E7, select the range Choose FormatConditional Format. For
condition 1 choose Cell Formula is: and type =NOT(ISBLANK(C3)) in the dialog
box which fills used cells with the format you choose.

You can add a second condition to format blank cells in the range with:
=ISBLANK(C3)

Regards
Peter



"Big Greg." wrote:

I have various cells in use but I want a graduated colored background behind
all of them. If I use a colored rectangle, it covers them. Can I move the
rectangle to the back, so it only shows where no data cells are in use?