Forum Discussion
How to stop Excel from highlighting a range of cells when I click only one?
In Excel, the behavior you are describing is typically caused by the "Extend Data Range Formats and Formulas" option, which automatically selects the surrounding cells when you click on a cell with content. To prevent this behavior, you can turn off the "Extend Data Range Formats and Formulas" option.
Here is how you can do it:
- Open Excel and go to the "File" tab.
- Click on "Options" to open the Excel Options dialog box.
- In the Excel Options dialog box, select the "Advanced" category on the left.
- Scroll down to the "Editing Options" section.
- Look for the option that says "Extend data range formats and formulas" and uncheck it.
- Click "OK" to apply the changes.
These steps should help prevent Excel from automatically selecting the surrounding cells when you click on a cell with content.The text and steps were edited with the help of AI.
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- MVSteveCMar 06, 2025Copper Contributor
I fixed mine by going to the VIEW tab> Focus Cell drop down > Unselect Focus Cell.
It immediately removed the Highlighting of the entire Column and Row from a single click.