Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. 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: Highlighting the Rows of Selected Cells.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 13, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365
Sometimes it is easy to lose track of where the selected cell is located in a worksheet. There are several ways you can locate the cell, but sometimes it would be handy to just have a way to highlight the whole row of the selected cell.
The easiest way to do this in Excel is to press Shift+Space Bar. The entire row is highlighted, and the selected cell remains the same. If you want to move to another cell in the same row (without changing the highlight), you can use Tab to move to the right and Shift+Tab to move to the left.
If you prefer to have Excel automatically highlight the row, you must rely upon a macro. The following one will do the trick:
Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Excel.Range) Static rr Static cc If cc <> "" Then With Columns(cc).Interior .ColorIndex = xlNone End With With Rows(rr).Interior .ColorIndex = xlNone End With End If rr = Selection.Row cc = Selection.Column With Columns(cc).Interior .ColorIndex = 20 .Pattern = xlSolid End With With Rows(rr).Interior .ColorIndex = 20 .Pattern = xlSolid End With End Sub
Make sure you attach the macro to the worksheet you are using at the time. All the code does is highlight the row and column the active cell is at. When moving to another cell, the code remembers the previous cell (by using variables declared as Static) and removes the highlighting from the previous rows and columns. This code highlights both the current row and column. For just highlighting the row, remove the chunks of code with cc in them. The only real problem with this method is that if your sheet has any previous color-filled cells, these will be changed to NoFill, erasing any color that was there.
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (10367) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Highlighting the Rows of Selected Cells.
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2019-08-19 10:30:52
Willy Vanhaelen
In his comment of 7 June 2018 Samuel is right, as well this tip's macro as my version in the previous post make the undo stack non functional. It is possible though to accomplish the highlighting with conditional formatting instead of by using these macros. Here is how:
- Select the range for which you want to apply the formatting (e.g. the whole sheet).
- Click "Conditional Formatting" in the "Styles" section of the ribbon's "Home" tab.
- Select "New Rule" and then choose "Use a formula to determine which cells to format".
- In the box "Format values where this formula is true:" enter the following formula:
=CELL("row")=ROW() for highlighting only the entire row
=OR(CELL("row")=ROW(),CELL("col")=COLUMN()) for both row and column.
- Click the "Format" button and select the "Fill" tab.
- Select the color you want and click OK three times.
This conditional formatting does however require a recalc in order to function properly. This can be done by this event macro:
Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
Target.Calculate
End Sub
The Target.Calculate statement doesn't affect the undo stack which remains functional.
2019-08-15 12:03:26
Willy Vanhaelen
Here is a simplified version of this tip's macro:
Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Excel.Range)
Static X As Long
Static Y As Long
If X <> 0 Then
Columns(X).Interior.ColorIndex = xlNone
Rows(Y).Interior.ColorIndex = xlNone
End If
X = Target.Column
Columns(X).Interior.ColorIndex = 20
Y = Target.Row
Rows(Y).Interior.ColorIndex = 20
End Sub
And if you only want the row to be highlighted (as I do), this little macro will do the job:
Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Excel.Range)
Static Y As Long
If Y <> 0 Then Rows(Y).Interior.ColorIndex = xlNone
Y = Target.Row
Rows(Y).Interior.ColorIndex = 20
End Sub
2018-06-07 05:43:54
samuel
Thanks great and simple tool. although i noticed that it doesn't allow undo (Ctrl+Z) and auto save. perhaps you could look into it
2018-01-03 00:40:24
Syed
Thank you great
2016-12-06 14:34:54
I like that there is no conditional formatting associated with this code.
How can I modify the VBA to highlight the row to the left and the column up?
Is there a way to keep the VBA from overwriting any other non conditional color formatting I am using?
Thanks, Mark
2015-10-08 09:38:09
Louis LAFRUIT
Personnaly I increase the heigth of that row.
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