How to change cell color when cell is clicked or selected in Excel?

This article will show you some methods of how to change cell color while clicking on a cell, and change the highlighted color while selecting a range of cells in Excel.

Change cell color when cell is clicked with VBA code
Change the highlighted color when cells are selected with VBA code
Highlight entire row and column of active cell with Kutools for Excel

Change cell color when cell is clicked with VBA code

Here, you can change the background color of a cell when double clicking it or right clicking on it with the following VBA code.

1. In the worksheet you will change the cell color when clicking on it, right click the sheet tab and click View Code from the right-clicking menu.

2. In the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window, please copy and paste the below VBA code into the Code window.

VBA: change cell color when clicking on it

Private Sub Worksheet_BeforeDoubleClick(ByVal Target As Range, Cancel As Boolean)
    Target.Interior.Color = vbRed
End Sub
Private Sub Worksheet_BeforeRightClick(ByVal Target As Range, Cancel As Boolean)
    Target.Interior.Color = vbGreen
End Sub

3. Press Alt + Q keys simultaneously to close the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

Then, when you double click a cell, it will be colored in red. And when you right click on a cell, it will be colored in green. See screenshot:

Kutools for Excel's Reading Layout utility helps you quickly highlight row and column of selected cell in Excel as the below demo shown.
Download and try it now! ( 30-day free trail)

Change the highlighted color when cells are selected with VBA code

By default, when selecting a range of cells, the highlighted color is gray. If you want to make the selected range more standing out, you can change its highlighted color to the one you need. Please do as follows.

1. Right click the sheet tab you want to change the highlighted color of the selected range, and click View Code from the right-clicking menu.

2. In the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window, please copy and paste the below VBA code into the Code window.

VBA code: change the highlighted color of selected range

Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
    With Target
        .Worksheet.Cells.FormatConditions.Delete
        .FormatConditions.Add xlExpression, , "TRUE"
        .FormatConditions(1).Interior.Color = vbYellow
    End With
End Sub

3. Press Alt + Q keys at the same time to close the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

From now on, the highlighted color of selected range or cell is changed to yellow. When you click another cell or range of cells, the cells will be colored automatically.

Highlight entire row and column of active cell with Kutools for Excel

If you are dealing with a large worksheet, it is necessary to highlight the entire row and column of the active cell in order to make reading more easily. Here the Reading Layout utility of Kutools for Excel can help you.

Before applying Kutools for Excel, please download and install it firstly.

1. Click Kutools > Reading Layout. See screenshot:

Then the reading layout is enabled, you can see the row and column of active cell are highlighted immediately.

Note: You can change the reading layout settings based on your needs as below screenshot shown.

If you want to have a free trial ( 30-day) of this utility, please click to download it, and then go to apply the operation according above steps.

Highlight entire row and column of active cell with Kutools for Excel

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Vera · 9 months ago
Hi,
is it possible to have a code for "change cell color when clicking on it" in the way that it will not change already formated cells with another color, please?
After applying your code all my formating (colours) is away. Thank you. Veronika
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Kris · 1 years ago
@shea honig I had that exact same question! I hope someone will answer you! The reason I am looking for this is I have a spreadsheet I use daily and put in lots of information into single cells. It gets hard to see the values (visually, it runs into info in other cells), and would be a great feature if I could change the color of the cell being edited - only while it is being edited. The simplest solution I can think of is that the cell value would be set back to what it was prior to being clicked on - but I don't know how to do that.
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kiba fil · 1 years ago
Thank you. Great Job
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shea honig · 1 years ago
hi
the is working grate but i want that the color should only be when the cell is selected and when i select something else, the first cell i selcted should not be colored
can you help me pls with this thanks
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perry · 1 years ago
Hi, I am trying to figure out how to change the color of a cell, based on a selection from a dropdown list. For example, HIGH=red, MEDIUM=yellow, LOW=green.

Any tips you can provide are greatly appreciated. Thank You
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crystal · 1 years ago
@Vishnu Subind Hi,
The below VBA code can do you a favor, please have a try. Thank you for your comment.

Private Sub Worksheet_BeforeDoubleClick(ByVal Target As Range, Cancel As Boolean)
If (Not Application.Intersect(Target, Me.Range("D9:P9")) Is Nothing) Then
Cancel = True
Target.Interior.Color = vbRed
End If
End Sub
Private Sub Worksheet_BeforeRightClick(ByVal Target As Range, Cancel As Boolean)
If (Not Application.Intersect(Target, Me.Range("D9:P9")) Is Nothing) Then
Cancel = True
Target.Interior.Color = vbGreen
End If
End Sub
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Vishnu Subind · 1 years ago
Hi guys, so i used to first code to change the cell colour to green/red on doubleclick/rightclick. I would like this code, however, to work just on a specific range of cells, in my case D9:P9. can someone help me on how to do that? Im new at VBA
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rahayu · 2 years ago
trimakasih
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rahayu · 2 years ago
td muncul=tidak muncul
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rahayu · 2 years ago
Salam...
sy sudah install kutools, tp kok td muncul tab kutools di layar excel ya? gmn cara mmunculkannya?trimakasih
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crystal · 2 years ago
@vuongngocsangbkdn@gmail.com Good day,
Sorry can't help you with that. Thanks for commenting.
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vuongngocsangbkdn@gmail.com · 2 years ago
I have a problem.
I want change color of one hyperlink if it had linked with one PDF to RED and if had not link with one PDF will show BLUE color.
How can I do now?
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crystal · 2 years ago
@devika.kalika@gmail.com Hi,
The code works well in my case after saving the workbook as an Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook.
Can you tell me your Excel version?
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devika.kalika@gmail.com · 2 years ago
I tried the "Change the highlighted color when cells are selected with VBA code" option and saved my excel as Macro Enabled Worksheet. Now the last cells that were selected are highlighted and won't highlight other cells when selected. I've deleted code and reentered and saved, but still no change. I can't remove the previous highlight either. I'm at lost on what to do.
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Jason · 2 years ago
Is there a way to just apply this to certain cells while leaving other cells with available for number entering?
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Slaxx · 2 years ago
hi. just a little heads up. i'm using office 2007.
i tried your code, and while it did work, it wasn't what i was looking for. so i just deleted the code completely. but the last selected/active cell before i deleted the code is still green (i changed the color from vbYellow to vbGreen), and the color won't go away. it's not affected by fill color either.
the simplest solution i found was to just delete the cell. copying and pasting will not work, it will also copy the color.
just thought i'd let you know. you might find another solution/troubleshooting for this, besides deleting and manual entry. still, thanks! i confirm that the code works :)
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crystal · 2 years ago
@Michelle Dear Michelle,
I followed the steps as you described, but the code also worked in my case. Can you tell me your Office version?
Thanks for your comment.
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Michelle · 2 years ago
I love how easy formatting my worksheet the code for "change cell color when clicking on it" would make my daily work! I am hitting a snag though. When I copy my Blank Sheet with the code entered as described, I get a error. It runs great until I create new sheets. I am a novice at coding and am working from textbooks and the internet. I appreciate any help you will offer!
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madhav neupane · 3 years ago
thank you thank you so much. I appreciate you for this.
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