Change background colour of cell in Calc to last used colour?

[MrP1]

When you change the background colour of a cell in LibreOffice Calc, the last used colour is displayed below the icon on the toolbar:

However, clicking the icon does not use the last used colour to colour the background - it does nothing?! You must re-pick the same colour from the dropdown. Since the last used colour is shown on the icon, I would have expected this colour to be used when clicking the icon, since otherwise I can’t see any point in showing this? (Incidentally, this is how it works in Excel.)

1. Should this work? Is it a bug (it’s bugging me ?
2. Is there an alternative way of quickly using the last used (background) colour?

Using Version 4.1.1.2 (Windows 7 - 64 bit)

[oweng]

Works as expected for me under GNU/Linux running v4.1.4.2. Also works in v3.6.7.2 and v4.0.6.2. Perhaps try a user profile reset?

[MrP1]

Strange, it’s working for me today as well!? (I have rebooted the computer in the meantime.) It has certainly not worked for me on numerous occasions in the past, and it wasn’t working yesterday when I posted the question. Maybe there’s a sequence of events that triggers this? Thanks.

[MrP1]

I’ve just realised under what circumstances this doesn’t “work as expected”. If you have since picked “No Fill” from the background colour dropdown then the previous background colour remains below the icon, but now with a thin black border (this is shown in the screenshot in my question). Clicking this icon now clears the background colour, as opposed to colouring it, despite the colour still showing beneath the icon. (I’ve added an answer with screenshots.)

[MrP1]

I’ve just realised what is going on! So, for the benefit of anyone else who has experienced this quandary. As suggested in my comment to oweng’s answer… sometimes this works “as expected”, other times it doesn’t.

The cell is not always coloured to the same colour that appears below the icon. This happens when you have since selected “No Fill” as the background from the dropdown. When you select “No Fill”, the previous colour (Purple in my question above) remains below the icon, but it now has a black (single pixel) border. Clicking this icon now clears the background colour from the cell, despite the previous “colour” still showing beneath the icon. This is a bit misleading, however, providing you are aware of the “black border” (indicating “No Fill”) then it works OK.

For example:

(1) Having picked “red” from the background colour dropdown, the cell is coloured “red” and the colour “red” appears beneath the icon. Clicking the icon now colours any cell “red”.

(2) Now select “No Fill” from the background colour dropdown.

The background colour of the cell is cleared, but the previous colour is still shown below the icon - except there is now a single pixel black border around the colour - very subtle! (This is similar to the screenshot in my question above.)

(3) Now clicking this icon (with the thin black border around the colour) will clear the background colour, not colour it red (the colour beneath the icon). And if the selected cell does not already have a background colour, clicking this button/icon appears to do nothing!