Using Excel in word 2000 pro, I run an excel spreadsheet to keep track of accounts, payments, petty cash and so on. to make it easy to read I have outgoings paid in red text, chash transactions in blue and income in black. Is it possible to make the whole line text a particular colour depanding on the text content of the first box in a line? If so, could one of you very clever people tell me how, in simple terms please, I'm new to excel...

Just use the Format Painter. Highlight the cell in the first column, click the format painter in the toolbar (looks like a paintbrush) and drag from the second column however far you wish to "paint" the cell format.

Many many thanks again Jennifer, you are a star, thanks for taking the time to respond and keeping it simple. Andavagoodweekend....

You're certainly welcome, and thanks for posting back.