that's not it either, no color is set.
the whole file and spreadsheet is mauve with and without data
I can change the format but when I clear that color the default appears to
mauve instead of no color which is preferred...grrrrrr :(

"Mark Lincoln" wrote:

Click on a cell and then go to Format|Conditional Formatting... and
check for any conditional formats. I'm guessing you have one that sets
cell color to 'mauve' for empty cells.