Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Conditionally Displaying a Message Box.
You may have a need to display a message box whenever specific information is placed in a specific cell by the user. Fortunately, using the Change event for a worksheet can help you to figure out when something has been placed in a cell.
For instance, let's say that you wanted to displays a message whenever the information in cell C3 is changed. The following, added to the code window for a specific worksheet, will do the trick:
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: 
Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
If Target.Address = "$C$3" Then
MsgBox "Changed It!"
End If
End Sub
The Change event is called, and passes the cell range to the routine. In this case, the range is assigned to the Target variable. The address of this range is then checked, and if it is equal to C3 (it has to be noted in absolute terms, such as $C$3), then the message box is displayed.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (9397) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, and 2013. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Conditionally Displaying a Message Box.
Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!
When you add a new worksheet to a workbook, Excel gives it a default name that consists of "Sheet" followed by a number. If ...
Discover MoreVariable arrays are used quite often in macros. If you use an array once in your macro and then need to reuse it for ...
Discover MoreNeed to know the address of the cell that is currently selected? There is no worksheet function to return this information, ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2017-05-02 11:54:32
Paolo Gera
I need to display a message when any cell of a specific range of adjacent cells is changed. Is there any means of doing this by altering the code presented in this tip?
Thanks in advance...
2014-07-30 16:08:24
Dennis Costello
I believe (although I did not experiment to confirm this) that this technique will not respond when the change is to a range of cells. If, for instance, the Excel user were to paste in an array of values into the range A2:D5, which clearly includes cell C3, the Worksheet_Change macro would have Target.Address as "$A$2". You need to check whether the the cell of particular interest lies within the Range. And possibly also take into account that the range might contain multiple areas.
Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2017 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments