When you save excel file, you got error: some cells or styles in this workbook contain formatting that is not supported by the selected file format. these formats will be converted to the closest format available.

Save excel file Compatibility Checker
Choose following colors: (colors which are supported by excel 2003)
– Black: RGB = 0 0 0
– White: RGB = 255 255 255
– Red: RGB = 255 0 0
– Green: RGB = 0 255 0
– Blue: RGB = 0 0 255
– Yellow: RGB = 255 255 0
– Magenta: RGB = 255 0 255
– Cyan: 0 255 255
You only need remember 0 and 255 are simple keys.

Colors excel 2003 RGB

Excel simple colors
If you want to fill with more colors, you can use 0 and 128 (instead of 255) as simple keys.