Project

Yes, along with multiple undo, the ability to format cells with a background color and pattern will be here in Project 2007 which has an expected release date sometime in early 2007. The Beta2 release was yesterday and a new SDK was released (find it here).

I'll be working through this stuff over the coming weeks, but some of the best things are the simple ones. For example this bit from the table of VBA Object Model Changes:

Cell, CellColor property, CellColor as PjColor

New for Cell object. Background color of the cell. In Project 2003 as GroupCriterion property only.

Cell, FontColor property, FontColor as PjColor
New for Cell object. Foreground color of the cell font. In Project 2003 as GroupCriterion property only.

Cell, Pattern property, Pattern as PjBackgroundPattern

New for Cell object. Background pattern of the cell. In Project 2003 as GroupCriterion property only.

Global, Application Font method Boolean Font(Optional Variant Name, Optional Variant Size, Optional Variant Bold, Optional Variant Italic, Optional Variant Underline, Optional Variant Color, Optional Variant Reset, Optional Variant CellColor, Optional Variant Pattern)

Changed: added parameters CellColor and Pattern.

See that? Cells have colors and patterns. Welcome to 1995! Now to install the beta and see if we are still limited to 16 colors...

PS: Don't take the 1995 comment too harshly. From the other new things in Project Server 2007 it is clear that the team has focused on solid improvements to functionality