How to circle around a cell in Excel?

When you edit a worksheet, you may want to draw a circle around a cell to show it obviously just as below screenshot shown. Now I will introduce some tricks for you to circle around a cell in Excel.

Circle around a cell with Oval shape

Circle around a cell with VBA

Circle around a cell with Oval shape

To circle around a cell, you need to insert an oval shape.

1. Click Insert > Shapes, and select Oval shape from the Basic Shapes section in the list. See screenshot:

2. Draw the oval to circle around the cell you need. See screenshot:

3. Right click at the shape and select Format Shape from context menu.

4. In the Format Shape dialog (or Format Shape pane), click Fill tab, and drag the arrow of Transparency to the right to make sure 100% displaying in the textbox. See screenshot:

5. Close the dialog. Now you can see there is a circle around the cell.

Tip: By default, the shape will move and resize with the cell.

Circle around a cell with VBA

If you want to quickly circle around a cell, you can use the VBA code.

1. Select the cell you want to circle and press Alt + F11 keys together to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

2. Click Insert > Module and copy the follow VBA code to the popped out window.

VBA: Circle around a cell.

Sub DrawCircle()
	'Updateby20141105
	Dim Arng As Range
	Dim WorkRng As Range
	Set WorkRng = Application.Selection
	For Each Arng In WorkRng.Areas
		With Arng
			x = Arng.Height * 0.1
			y = Arng.Width * 0.1
			Application.ActiveSheet.Ovals.Add Top: = .Top - x, Left: = .Left - y, _
			Height: = .Height + 2 * x, Width: = .Width + 1.5 * y
			With Application.ActiveSheet.Ovals(ActiveSheet.Ovals.Count)
				.Interior.ColorIndex = xlNone
				.ShapeRange.Line.Weight = 1.25
			End With
		End With
	Next
	WorkRng.Select
End Sub

3. Press F5 key or click Run button to run the VBA code, now the selected cell is circled.

Tips:

(1) If you select multiple adjacent cells in the first step, this VBA macro will circle around these cells together.

(2) If you select multiple non-adjacent cells in the first step, this VBA macro will circle around each cell individually.