How to highlight selected row / column / column and row in Excel?
In a large worksheet, it may be easier for you to read the data by highlighting the entire row, column or both row and column, because of losing track of where the selected cell is located when you scroll the worksheet. This article, I will talk about how to highlight the whole row, column or both row and column of the selected cell, and when the cell changes, the column or row of the new cell are highlighted automatically.
Highlight the row / column / column and row of selected cell with Conditional Formatting
Highlight the row / column / column and row of selected cell with Kutools for Excel
Highlight the row / column / column and row of selected cell with Conditional Formatting
In fact, Conditional Formatting is a powerful function, it can help you to highlight the whole row, column or column and row of active cell, and changes with the cell moves, please do as follows:
1. Go to the worksheet that you want to use, and click cell A1, then select the whole worksheet, (you can click on the square at the intersection of the row and column headers), see screenshot:
2. Then click Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule to open the New Formatting Rule dialog, in the popped out dialog, please click Use a formula to determine which cells to format option, and enter this formula: =OR(CELL("col")=CELL("col",A1),CELL("row")=CELL("row",A1)) into the Format values where this formula is true text box, see screenshot:
Tips: To highlight the entire row of selected cell, please apply this formula: =ROW()=CELL("row"), to highlight the selected column only please use this formula: =COLUMN()=CELL("col").
3. Go on clicking Format button, and in the Format Cells dialog box, please specify a color for highlighting the row and column of active cell under the Fill tab, see screenshot:
4. And then click OK > OK to exit the dialogs, now, you can see the whole column and row of selected cell A1 have been highlighted at once, then, you can click any cell and press F9 key to highlight the selected entire column and row, see screenshot:
Highlight the row / column / column and row of selected cell with Kutools for Excel
If the Conditional Formatting method is a little difficult for you, I can introduce a handy tool- Kutools for Excel, with its Reading Layout utility, you can highlight the row, column, row and column of the selected cell with only one click.
| Kutools for Excel : with more than 300 handy Excel add-ins, free to try with no limitation in 30 days. |
After installing Kutools for Excel, please do as follows:
1. Select a cell which you want to highlight the column and row, then, click Kutools > Reading Layout, and the column and row of the selected cell have been highlighted, when you click other cell or range of cells, the column and row of the new cell are highlighted automatically, see screenshot:
Notes:
1. You can go the Reading Layout Settings dialog box to set the highlighted color and the shapes, styles as you need.
2. If you want to cancel the highlighting, just click Kutools > Reading Layout again to disable the auto shading.
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Demo: Highlight the row / column / column and row of selected cell with Kutools for Excel
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