Ok, strange title but had I simply said: "How to remove background color from a table" you would have given me the wrong answer--one that I already know.
Adding color to a table means going to the 'Borders and Shading' so removing it would mean going there as well.
The other choice is, when it comes to background color, the Page Layout tab -> Page Color. And this is not it either.

The thing is this, on occasion I cut and paste something from the net which ends up in a column. As the case here that I am referring to. Now if I go to any of the above 2 choices I will see that there is no color. Hence, if there is no color then where is the color I am looking at coming from? -- it's there but not there.
As the attached picture shows there is yellow but somehow I can't seem to figure out where it comes from and how to get rid of it.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Attached Images

Capture.JPG (41.3 KB, 26 views)

No background colouring is apparent in you image, so it's not clear what the issue is.

Without actually seeing the problem document, it can be difficult for anyone to diagnose the issue. Can you attach a document to a post with a representative portion of the table (delete anything sensitive)? You do this via the paperclip symbol on the 'Go Advanced' tab at the bottom of this screen.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thanks for your help. I am wondering if you really can't see the color, or if what you define as 'background color'' is not equal to my definition of it.
I will describe what I see. Text is shown in 3 colors. green on top, than a dark grey and black. Surrounding the the black and grey text is yellow. Also if you look at the images you will notice that there is white around the bulbs, actually forming a square on each. Outside of this white square (the background to the bulb within its image) is where you could differentiate that it is yellow-albeit a light yellow. If you can not see this, perhaps you may want to download the photo and see it on your monitor.
If you can see it, then this is what I am referring to as background color, the background pale yellow.

The font colours are as you say. However, there is none of the yellow background shading or the white squares around the bulbs that you describe in the image you have posted. The same applies when the image is downloaded from your post.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

I can see the colors. Not sure if this is what is happening, but if you select multiple cells with the same color, it will display the color when you open the Borders and Shadings dialog. If you have multiple cells with different (even slightly) shadings, it will initially show the 'No Color' selected. If you click on the Fill dropdown, and reselect 'No Color', it should clear them.

Thanks cosmo. I had done that before but it didn't work. Now it has because maybe I did a little differently as such:
-1- Select the whole table, -->Borders and Shading, -> Shading and then
-2- ''Fill'' and added a color -> ''Pattern style'' and added something.
I then closed the Window. Then went back into it and this time chose, 'no color, and Style 'clear and it did work.
As to you macropod, I thank you just the same, all help is always good so thanks. And perhaps in the process you learned something as well either your eyes don't see certain colors the way they should or your monitor is either set wrong--you can have it too warm or too cool for ex. or not good enough (not that mine is the best in town either) :-)