Forum Discussion
Find and Replace Highlight colour
When I'm using the Find and Replace function and hit find, Excel finds the cell but its very hard to see because of the highlighted colour. Is there a way to change the default colour?
Thanks in advance.
- I understand your struggle now. I guess you will have to rely on the columns and row headers to help you detect the column and row of the active cell.
Option 2 is to use less vibrant colours in your cells.
Also, other people posted your request as an improvement idea for Excel. You can add your vote:
- https://excel.uservoice.com/forums/304921-excel-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/38326495-change-the-border-color-around-the-selected-cell
- https://excel.uservoice.com/forums/304921-excel-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/40316236-active-cell-border
- https://excel.uservoice.com/forums/304921-excel-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/42616582-improve-visibility-of-selected-cells
- The frustrating thing is that if you open an Excel file in Microsoft Teams, THE WHOLE CELL IS COLORED. Which is WAY easier to spot then a dark colored border. I thought this was the norm for all Excel files, but when I downloaded my work file from Teams to my desktop, I was so confused to why I no longer could see the selected cell from my search. It's the same company?! Why is this not a problem in the files in Teams??
SOLVED THE READABLE FIND (Search) in and Workbook. JUST SELECT ALL (TOP LEFT ARROW), NOW, the entire FIND AND REPLACE box is now highlighted. So easy to see.
This seems the most workable solution so far.
Its just the one extra step of selecting the entire worksheet.
lol just letting everyone kknow still nothing even in 2023! but i don't get it, i was using the same version of microsoft 365 i believe, but after i changed the company i work in, only this new computer has this problem, was it a horrible update?
UPDATE! I may or may not have found a workaround to get the same result with 2-3 clicks:
- After hitting search, you see the list of results in the lower part of the search window, select one and then ctrl-A to select them all, THEN go to FILL/HIGHLIGHT and paint your heart out.
If they are still selected it should work, just did it form me know, and you can straight our use any color from the FILL/HIGHLIGHT palette instead of the old just light yellow.
p.s. eat a zucchini microsoft
- Maybe trying to change your Windows color schema or your Excel Theme colors could help?
Thanks for the response. I did try that and still nothing. the highlight boarder is a dark green.
Even if there was an option to change the thickness of the highlight boarder, that may help.
This is how it shows on my computer:
It is not hard for me to see the highlighted cell in B4. But in this case, I do not have any borders applied to the cells. Do you have borders?
Do you suffer from some type of color blindness that could prevent you from distinguishing some color shades?
Another way to spot the selected cell is looking that the column and row headers. We can see that column B and row 4 show a darker shade of gray.
Can you copy and paste here how it shows on your computer?
Thank you.
- Find and Replace Highlight in Windows Microsoft 365 Excel Solution
If you have an Excel workbook open with lots of data. Click Control "F"
to open Find and Replace; enter your search: If you select "Find Next" it will highlight that result at the Alpha Numeric section. So, If you hit "Find Next", it will always be dead center on the screen for every search. YOU will focus you eye and see that all the searches will be in the exact same place. EASY Solve!- That is not even remotely a solution to the problem that so many are posting about here. It is the cell that needs to be highlighted as a whole in a colour that the user can choose. See the post above your own to get the idea. Including as to the extent that Microsoft is inconsistent.
mark_murphy_manluk Am having the same issue. This is something you can do that’s not great, but is a work around. Go to File>Options>Advanced. Scroll down to Show gridlines. Check that and change the color to a lighter color. I chose a light blue. Hit okay. Then try your Ctrl-F. Very easy to see the Find result. When you are done, want to print, or whatever, just go back and change back to black.
- SOLVED THE READABLE FIND (Search) in and Workbook. JUST SELECT ALL (TOP LEFT ARROW), NOW, the entire FIND AND REPLACE box is now highlighted. So easy to see.
Thanks for your soultion, but this many steps for such an easy possible fix seems unacceptable. Do better Excel.
That was a beautiful solution! So I did some more research and found that if you go to HOME/ ALL BORDERS/ DRAW BORDERS/ LINE STYLE/ CHOOSE THE HEAVY BOTTOM ONE, THICK AND BOLD. Then with the File/ Options/ Grid lines you suggested and choose light gray. The FIND and REPLACE (CONTROL F), the entire box is now highlighted light blue. So easy to see. Check it out!
- You have to select the entire workbook with the TOP LEFT CORNER symbol
(The down arrow). Then it really glows, and stands out for all your searches.
- Kmb2023, thanks for the great work around. Hopefully Microsoft will address this simple user experience in future updates.
I have changed the Grid line color for my excel which makes it a little easier to look for the selected cell
Had the same issue! Found how to fix this!
Look at this video 🙂
This works if you know where the active cell is. Unfortunately, I'm just using the Find command to find the information on the worksheet.
- its working with the find and seach
When i try to search in excel the search result row and column comes in highlighted green color which i really don't want. can anybody help to change back to normal ?
Change the size of the window of your Excel to only be 5 rows high and you’ll see the one that is found next easier. It will be one of those 5
