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How to highlight the active sheet tab in Excel?

Author Siluvia Last modified

In an opening workbook, the active sheet tab distinguishes from others by whitening the tab and bolding the text by default. If you want to make the active worksheet tab more outstanding in your workbook, a method in this article can help you.

Highlight the active worksheet tab with VBA code

Highlight the active worksheet tab with VBA code

Please do as follows to highlight the active sheet tab in an opening Excel workbook.

1. In the workbook, you want to highlight the active sheet tab, press the Alt + F11 keys to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

2. In the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window, please double-click the ThisWorkbook in the left pane, and then copy and paste VBA code into the ThisWorkbook (Code) window. See screenshot:

VBA code: Highlight the active worksheet tab in an opening workbook

Private Sub Workbook_SheetActivate(ByVal Sh As Object)
    Dim xSheet As Worksheet
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    For Each xSheet In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets
        If xSheet.Name = ActiveSheet.Name Then
            xSheet.Tab.ColorIndex = 6
        Else
            xSheet.Tab.ColorIndex = 2
        End If
    Next
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

copy and paste the code into thisworkbook module

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

Now, when you activate a sheet, the sheet tab is highlighted in yellow automatically as below screenshot shown:

when activating a sheet, the sheet tab is highlighted

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