Help > Authoring > Working with Tables > Table Editing > Shading Cells
  
Shading Cells
You can fill any table cell with a shading background color.
* 
HTML tables adhere to a shading inheritance hierarchy. See Shading inheritance in HTML tables for details.
* 
Shading cell operations are not applicable to custom tables.
To shade cells:
1. Select the cells you want to shade.
2. Choose Table > Table Properties.
3. In the Cell tab, choose a shade from the Background Color palette. If you wish to select a different color, select More Colors to display the Web-safe Colors dialog box.
4. To apply the selection, click OK.
* 
In OASIS Exchange tables, changes to cell shading are saved as processing instructions which are typically not compatible with other XML editors. Use the set tableuiextensions command to prevent format settings from being saved as processing instructions.
Related information 
Table Properties Dialog Box
Shading Inheritance in HTML Tables