How to move highlighted cells to top in Excel?
In many Excel workbooks, it's common to use color highlighting to mark important data, track progress, or identify records that require special attention. However, when working with lengthy lists or large datasets, you might want to quickly bring all the highlighted rows or cells to the top for easy review or batch processing, as shown in the screenshots below. This operation allows you to efficiently focus on critical data without manually searching or moving rows one by one.
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Move highlighted cells to top by Sort function
Move highlighted cells to top
To rearrange your data so all highlighted cells appear at the top, Excel's built-in Sort feature provides a straightforward solution. This approach doesn't require any additional formulas or code, and is suitable when your highlights are based on cell color applied either manually or via conditional formatting.
1. Select the data range that contains the highlighted cells you want to move. Be sure to include all columns of your data to avoid disorganizing your rows, especially when sorting entire tables. Next, go to the Data tab and click the Sort button. See screenshot:
2. In the Sort dialog window, configure these settings to arrange by color:
1) In the Column drop-down, choose the column containing your highlighted cells.
2) From the Sort On list, select Cell Color.
3) In the Order section, pick the specific color used for highlighting (for example, Yellow).
4) Choose On Top in the final drop-down menu to bring all highlighted cells to the top of your range.
Tip: If your data includes a header row, check the option "My data has headers" in the Sort window for better clarity.
Note: If your highlighted cells are in multiple colors and you wish to bring several colors to the top, you can add multiple 'Sort by' levels in the dialog—repeat the above process for each color.
3. Click OK. All rows or cells with the selected highlighted color will now appear at the top of your data range, making them easy to locate, review, or process.
Summary Suggestion: Using the Sort feature by cell color is efficient for straightforward tasks, but for more dynamic control or complex highlight-based sorting, consider the Excel formula or VBA methods below.
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