changing the background color of the indicated column 1 row for better visibility when search ends

Copper Contributor

Hi guys: This has been bugging me for ages and I have been unable to find the answer. I am using Win10 PC's with Office 365 and have a substantial spreadsheet of electronic components I use in my electronics hobbies. I have been adding to this sheet for some years and when doing a general search to see if I have in stock a specific component I always use a general search encompassing all columns and rows for any reference to what I am specifically looking for.
Trouble is my site is poorly at 70 years old and I often do not easily see the indicated row highlighted in column 1 when my search completes. I have been unable to find out how to highlight the indicated Column1 :Row x that my search indicates with a much brighter or more contrasting background color.

Help would be truly appreciated with this one friends, I will attempt to generate a small example file to indicate what I am talking about. I am enclosing a portion of the file in question, please see cell M5 for a bit more clarity. Thanks in advance, I am expecting someone to make me feel like the fool I am.

2 Replies

@Cocosoft 

=AND($M$1<>"",ISNUMBER(SEARCH($M$1,A1)))

 

Maybe this is the rule for conditional formatting you are looking for. Enter search value in cell M1 to highlight the search result in column A in red.

Thanks so much for your reply, I have tried it although not truly understanding what I was doing and it appears to highlight the border colors of the chosen cell in column A with a thin red line. Not sure if that is what you had in mind. I changed the width of the borders in column A so it would stand out more but this is not what I was looking for either. I was really hoping it was possible for the search to highlight the appropriate row number column with a stand out color or in lieu of that to highlight the whole row in a different color temporarily.
I will leave it here till I find out if I am making myself understood. Thanks again so much for trying to help, it's much appreciated