When looking at a big table of analysis (or data), it would make our life simpler if the selected cell’s column and row are highlighted, so that we can instantly compare and get a sense of things. Like this:
Who doesn’t like a little highlighting. So lets learn how to do highlighting today.
Step 1: Identify the area for highlighting
This is simple, unless you are AUI (analyzing under influence). Lets assume that we are dealing with a range of cells in B4:I14
Step 2: Use 2 cells to capture the selected row & column details
Outside our highlight range, lets set aside 2 cells (E17 & E18 in this case) for keeping the details of which row & column needs to be highlighted.
We can call these cells selRow & selCol.
Step 3: Unleash the VBA magic
- Right click on the sheet name & choose ‘view code’.
- Choose Worksheet & Selection Change from the drop-downs.
- Excel would add a blank
Worksheet_SelectionChange()sub - Write the below lines of code.
[selRow] = Target.Row[selCol] = Target.Column
- Done. So much simpler than using floo network or transmogrifying muggles.
Step 4: Add conditional formatting to highlight selected cell’s row & column
Now that we know which row & column should be highlighted, it is a simple matter of switching on Excel’s highlighting charm – Conditional Formatting.
Select the entire range (B4:I14) and go to conditional formatting > new rule
Select the rule type as Use a formula… and use a below rules.
=ROW(B4) = selRow- Apply formatting
- Repeat the steps & this time use the rule
=COLUMN(B4) = selCol
Step 5: Show off.
Incorporate this technique in to your dashboard or weekly report. Watch the socks knocked off your boss’. Bask in the glory. Repeat and enjoy.
Bonus Tip: Use similar technique to enhance user inputs
You can use similar idea to conditionally show messages on your worksheets. See this demo.
I am not telling you how to do this. But I know you are awesome enough to figure this out.
Download Example File
Click here to download example file & understand how to use this technique.
Do you use highlighting techniques in your reports & analysis?
I always use conditional formatting & light-weight VBA to enhance my dashboards and analysis. Especially conditional formatting is almost a magical way to make stunning reports & show off things that are important.
What about you? Do you use these techniques often? what is your experience like? Please share your tips & ideas using comments. I am all ears.
Transmogrify your boring work to awesome – Check out!
- Interactive sales chart using Excel
- Show details on demand using simple VBA
- Highlight points in scatter & line charts
- Display alert symbols in dashboards to grab attention
- Highlight top 10 values using conditional formatting
Also see introduction to conditional formatting & VBA to understand to get the basics right.
For more potent magic, please consider joining our Online VBA Classes. You are going to leave everyone spellbound.
8 Responses to “Top 5 keyboard shortcuts for Excel Charts”
As far as I remember (checked, again, 2 minutes ago) in my "Excel 2013" in order to select various chart elements I need to use the Arrow keys and not the TAB key.
Practically, the TAB key does nothing (within a Chart).
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Michael (Micky) Avidan
Thanks for pointing this out. This is how I remember it too, but when I was recording the video yesterday, only TAB key worked. MS must have changed the keys in Excel 2016. I have edited the post to include both keys.
The key navigation on charts is different in 2016.
TAB cycles through a layer of objects (SHIFT+TAB cycles backwards)
ENTER move down a layer
ESC moves up a layer
So on a column chart with title/legend/data labels if you select the plotarea the TAB will go through Title > Legend > Plotarea.
ENTER at plotarea will then select Vertical axis. Tab will take you through
Horizontal axis > gridlines > Series > Horizontal Axis.
ENTER with series selected will then allow you to TAB through individual data points and data labels.
If you ENTER on datalabels you can TAB through each data label.
ALT + F1 : to create default chart
ALT+E S T = CTRL + ALT + V, T : I find that easier to remember
I second what Michael already said about TAB and arrow keys. I can't help but think if this is related to the "," or ";" as separator. I prefer to use the chart tools - layout- drop down box, anyway.
Got to be F11 for instant charting. Highlight your data , hit F11 and voila! ?
Ctrl+1 is the most important chart shortcut. In fact, it works for any Excel object: whatever is selected, Ctrl+1 opens the task pane or dialog to format that object.
Somewhere along the line, maybe when Excel 2016 came out, the arrow keys stopped working to cycle through the elements of a chart. But what works is holding Ctrl while clicking the arrow keys. I haven't gotten used to the Tab and other keys, but as long as Ctrl+Arrow works, I'm good.
And F4 used to be so helpful when formatting a lot of charts. But since Excel 2007 came out, it has been mostly useless. It used to remember a whole set of changes at once, so I get that the newer modeless dialogs make that impractical. But now it only seems to work with formatting of lines and borders, and maybe fills. I find myself writing a lot of VBA one-liners in the Immediate Window to handle these tedious formatting tasks.
after clicking on a chart, is there a shortcut key to copy it?
Thank you for the Alt E S T - tip. This is more than a time saver. Because of dynamic charts or de-activated external references to data when you make the charts, you often have empty charts that are otherwise impossible to format. So this shortcut helps adressing that. I will work with it more and see if there remain some obstacles.