Avoiding the color hunt and peck

Question

when i have a row that is colored i oftentimes have text in one of the cells since i am using this as a sort of colored dividing line between different types of information. when i need to create a new colored row or when i need to change the color of a row that was cut and pasted from another area (say it already has the correct title in it) - i then need to MATCH the color that i was using for the other rows.
however, when i select the row and click on the color button at the top there is no way for me to know what color is being used by the other rows unless i select /those/ rows and do this. and even then i am oftentimes confused as to whether the orange is two rows over from the right and four rows up or if it is three rows over from the right and four rows up.
can anyone help me with this?
is there some kind of operation that lets me select one cell with the color and do a copy formatting and then select the whole row of the destination and do paste formatting that will get me the color without over writing the text?
TIA

Answer 1

Hello
Here's a pair of AppleScript scripts which may help.
Copy the codes listed below to two new documents (one per each) of AppleScript Editor, save them as compiled scripts, e.g., "fill colour - copy.scpt" and "fill colour - paste.scpt", in  ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Numbers directory so that they appear in script menu in Numbers.
Firstly, select source range (cells, rows or columns) with fill colour, call "fill colour - copy" script and it will get the fill colour of the first cell in the selected range and put the colour data in clipboard.
Secondly, select target range (cells, rows or colums), call "fill colour - paste" script and it will set the fill colour of the selected range to the colour in the clipboard.
Known limitation is that it cannot copy fill colour 'none' due to a flaw in scripting interface of Numbers 09.
Tested with Numbers 2.0.5 under OS X 10.5.8.
Good luck,
H
1) fill colour - copy.applescript
    copy background color to clipboard
    * this script will copy the fill colour of the first cell in the selected range.
    * this script cannot copy the fill colour 'none', which is denoted by / in fill colour grid.
tell application "Numbers"
    tell my _selection(document 1)'s range
        if it is missing value then return
        set c to background color
    end tell
end tell
try
    set the clipboard to c as RGB color
on error number -2753 -- variable c is not defined, in case background color is none
    display dialog "Fill colour is none" with icon 2 giving up after 10
    return
end try
on _selection(doc)
        reference doc : target document
        return record : {range:_range, table:_table, sheet:_sheet}
            _range = reference to named range in selection
            _table = table object to which selection range belongs
            _sheet = sheet object to which selection range belongs
        Limitation
            Numbers allows to select uncontinuous regions
            but its scripting interface does not provide decent method to retrieve them.
            If uncontinuous regions are selected, 'selection range' returns the minimum continuous region
            which includes all the regions in selection.
    script o
        property parent : {}
        property pp : {}
        local q, r, s, _range, _table, _sheet
        tell application "Numbers"
            set pp to doc's every sheet's every table's selection range as list
            repeat with p in my pp -- per sheet
                set q to p's every reference -- retrieve object (filtering out missing value)
                if q ≠ {} then
                    set q to q's item 1 -- selection range object [1]
                    set r to q as record -- selection range object specifier record [2]
                    set _table to r's every reference's item 1 -- container table reference [3]
                    set s to (a reference to _table's selection range) -- selection range reference [4]
                    set _range to (a reference to _table's range (s's name)) -- named range reference [5]
                    set _sheet to (_table as record)'s every reference's item 1 -- container sheet reference [3]
                    return {range:_range, table:_table, sheet:_sheet}
                end if
            end repeat
            return {range:missing value, table:missing value, sheet:missing value}
        end tell
            [1] class specifier for 'range' is broken in Numbers 09
            [2] «class want» value is broken in Numbers 09
            [3] simple method to get «class from» value without asking for «class from» key which causes trouble in recompilation of the token 'from'.
            [4] proper reference of selection range object
            [5] proper reference of named range object
    end script
    tell o to run
end _selection
2) fill colour - paste.applescript
    paste background color from clipboard
    * this script expects the clipboard contains RGB color data.
try
    set c to the clipboard as RGB color
on error number -1700
    display dialog "Colour not found in clipboard" with icon 2 giving up after 10
    return
end try
tell application "Numbers"
    tell my _selection(document 1)'s range
        if it is missing value then return
        set background color to c
    end tell
end tell
on _selection(doc)
        reference doc : target document
        return record : {range:_range, table:_table, sheet:_sheet}
            _range = reference to named range in selection
            _table = table object to which selection range belongs
            _sheet = sheet object to which selection range belongs
        Limitation
            Numbers allows to select uncontinuous regions
            but its scripting interface does not provide decent method to retrieve them.
            If uncontinuous regions are selected, 'selection range' returns the minimum continuous region
            which includes all the regions in selection.
    script o
        property parent : {}
        property pp : {}
        local q, r, s, _range, _table, _sheet
        tell application "Numbers"
            set pp to doc's every sheet's every table's selection range as list
            repeat with p in my pp -- per sheet
                set q to p's every reference -- retrieve object (filtering out missing value)
                if q ≠ {} then
                    set q to q's item 1 -- selection range object [1]
                    set r to q as record -- selection range object specifier record [2]
                    set _table to r's every reference's item 1 -- container table reference [3]
                    set s to (a reference to _table's selection range) -- selection range reference [4]
                    set _range to (a reference to _table's range (s's name)) -- named range reference [5]
                    set _sheet to (_table as record)'s every reference's item 1 -- container sheet reference [3]
                    return {range:_range, table:_table, sheet:_sheet}
                end if
            end repeat
            return {range:missing value, table:missing value, sheet:missing value}
        end tell
            [1] class specifier for 'range' is broken in Numbers 09
            [2] «class want» value is broken in Numbers 09
            [3] simple method to get «class from» value without asking for «class from» key which causes trouble in recompilation of the token 'from'.
            [4] proper reference of selection range object
            [5] proper reference of named range object
    end script
    tell o to run
end _selection