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Creating a Highlighted Alternating Row Effect in Microsoft Excel
Adding a highlight to alternating rows in Excel helps readers (or your own eyes) quickly differentiate elements in a table or list. This tutorial will show you how to quickly and easily achieve this effect.
Steps:
- Select the cells to be highlighted. Select the area you wish to highlight. This can be the whole sheet, part of the sheet, or a single column.
- Add a background color to every other row. To do this, choose the Home tab from the main toolbar and then select the Format drop-down option from the Cells group.
- Choose the Conditional Formatting option and then the New Rule command. In the resulting dialog box, select Use a formula to determine which cells to format.
- Enter the following into the formula field:
=MOD(ROW(),2)=0. This creates the alternating effect. - Set the background color style. Choose a background you can quickly recognize, like a light yellow. Press OK to complete the selection.
- Click the OK button to apply the formatting.
Highlighting every other row in Excel helps to bring clarity to your tables and data, making it easier to immediately scan and process the information.