Question

Using AppleScript, how can I change the background color of “cells ranging from A3 to E3” to light grey?

I still want the font to be in black.

Answer 1

Two caveats with this answer: You didn’t specify which version of Excel, and the following was tested in v2004.

tell application "Microsoft Excel"
    set theRange to range "A3:E3"
    set interiorObject to interior object of theRange
    set color index of interiorObject to 5 -- '5' is only a dummy value; change as needed.
end tell

Per the dictionary, color index is “the color is specified as an index value into the current color palette”. In other words, the color index that is light gray in your install maybe different elsewhere.