This post will guide you how to highlight the active row and column in Excel. How do I highlight row and column of active cell with Excel VBA Macro. How to highlight the active row or column when a cell is selected.

1. Auto Highlight Row or Column of Active Cell

When you select one cell and you want the row and column in the active cell to auto-highlight. How to achieve it. You should be write a VBA Macro or user defined function to achieve the result. Just do the following steps:

#1 right click on the sheet tab, and select view code from the popup menu list. And the Visual Basic For Application dialog will open.

#2 type the following VBA Macro into the code window. And save and close the VBA window.

Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
    On Error Resume Next
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    ' Clear the color of all the cells
    Cells.Interior.ColorIndex = 0
    If Target.Cells.Count > 1 Then Exit Sub
    With Target
        ' Highlight the entire row and column that contain the active cell
        .EntireRow.Interior.ColorIndex = 6
        .EntireColumn.Interior.ColorIndex = 6
    End With
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

#3 select one cell, the entire row and column of active Cell are auto-highlighted.

2. Auto Highlight Active Cell

If you want only to highlight the active cell, you can use the following VBA Macro:

Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    ' Clear the color of all the cells
    Cells.Interior.ColorIndex = 0
    ' Highlight the active cell
    Target.Interior.ColorIndex = 6
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

3. Auto Highlight Row and Column within the Current Region

If you want to highlight only the row and column within the current region in worksheet, you can use the following VBA Macro:

Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
    On Error Resume Next
    ' Clear the color of all the cells
    Cells.Interior.ColorIndex = 0
    If IsEmpty(Target) Or Target.Cells.Count > 1 Then Exit Sub
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    With ActiveCell
        ' Highlight the row and column within the current region
        Range(Cells(.Row, .CurrentRegion.Column), Cells(.Row, .CurrentRegion.Columns.Count + .CurrentRegion.Column - 1)).Interior.ColorIndex = 6
        Range(Cells(.CurrentRegion.Row, .Column), Cells(.CurrentRegion.Rows.Count + .CurrentRegion.Row - 1, .Column)).Interior.ColorIndex = 6
    End With
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

4. Auto Highlight Row and Column with Double-click Cell

If you want to auto-highlight row and column when you double click a cell, you can use the following VBA macro:

Private Sub Worksheet_BeforeDoubleClick(ByVal Target As Range, Cancel As Boolean)
'Step 1:  Declare Variables
    Dim strRange As String
'Step2:  Build the range string
    strRange = Target.Cells.Address & "," & _
               Target.Cells.EntireColumn.Address & "," & _
               Target.Cells.EntireRow.Address
'Step 3: Pass the range string to a Range
    Range(strRange).Select
End Sub

5. Video: Auto Highlight Active Row and Column

We’ll explore various methods to visually enhance your spreadsheets by automatically highlighting the active row, column, or cell. Whether you want to use VBA macros for individual cell highlighting, row and column highlighting, within the current region, or on a double-click action, we’ve got you covered.