Adding Drop Shadows to Cells

When formatting the data in your worksheet, you may wonder if there is a way to add a drop shadow to a single cell. There is a very simple way to do it, depending on your version of Excel. If you are using a version of Excel prior to Excel 2007, follow these steps:

1. Select the cell that you want to have the drop shadow.
2. Make sure the Drawing toolbar is displayed. (If you don't see it, click View | Toolbars | Drawing.)
3. On the Drawing toolbar, click the Shadow Style tool. (It is the second from the right.) You'll see a palette of various shadows you can apply.
4. Select the shadow desired.

That's it. What Excel technically does is to add a text box, the exact same size as the cell you selected in step 1, over the top of the cell. This text box is transparent so that the cell contents show through, but it has borders applied so that you see the drop shadow.

If you are using Excel 2007, which doesn't have a Drawing toolbar, then you are pretty much out of luck as far as a simple answer goes. Even searching through the tools available for the Quick Access toolbar, there is no command that functions the same as the Shadow Style tool on the old Drawing toolbar. The best you can do is to follow these general steps:

1. Add an AutoShape to the worksheet that is the same size as the cell.
2. Turn off the fill for the AutoShape.
3. Add a drop shadow to the AutoShape.

This, of course, could get a bit tedious over time. For this reason, you may want to use a macro to actually perform the steps. The following macro will add a drop shadow to whatever range you have selected in the worksheet.

Sub AddDropShadows()
    Dim ar As Range
    For Each ar In Selection.Areas
        AddDrop ar
    Next ar
End Sub

Sub AddDrop(rng As Range, _
  Optional vShadowType = msoShadow14, _
  Optional vSchemeColor = 55)

    With rng.Parent.Shapes.AddShape( _
      msoShapeRectangle, rng.Left, rng.Top, _
      rng.Width, rng.Height)
        .Fill.Visible = msoFalse
        .Shadow.Obscured = msoTrue
        .Shadow.Type = vShadowType
        .Shadow.ForeColor.SchemeColor = vSchemeColor
        .Shadow.Visible = msoTrue
        .ThreeD.Visible = msoFalse
    End With
End Sub

There is one thing that you should know about adding drop shadows to cells in Excel 2007: The shadow, itself, is not as "smart" as in earlier versions of Excel. When adding a drop shadow in Excel 2003, for instance, the shadow is appears at the bottom and right side of the shape added, as if the shape is filled. In Excel 2007 the drop shadow is for all four sides, so it looks a bit unprofessional when applied to a cell.