All well and good, but an existing format doesn't work for my case where I need the rows banded per certain criteria. (A weekly set of dates) My table at present is 6 columns and thirteen rows, expandable of course (rows). The first column is not shaded it is only for reference it is the numbers shows a numbered list of rows in the table. The first fow of the table is again reference--column titles. The first two data rows represent the week of October 3-7, the next row is for October 10-14, the next two are for October 17-21, and the next four are October 24, and the next one is October 31 to November 4. I don't know of a way to automate this coloring as the number of rows varies per week, and at any time (due dates of documents).13 th row is for future additions. In this case I choose a fill color from the fill menu. I have had as many as 40 rows or as few as 1.