Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Selecting a Range of Cells Relative to the Current Cell.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 15, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
Sometimes in a macro it is helpful to select cells relative to whichever cell is currently selected. For instance, let's say you want to select the first three cells of the current row. You can do that by using the following VBA code:
Range(Cells(Selection.Row, 1), Cells(Selection.Row, 3)).Select
The Cells property returns an object that represents a specific row and column (individual cell) of a worksheet. In this usage, Cells is used twice to determine a specific range of cells. The first instance returns the first cell of the current row, while the second returns the third cell of the current row. Thus, the range becomes the first through third cells of the current row.
Instead of using the Cells property to specify a location, you can use the Offset property to accomplish much of the same task. Consider the following code:
Range(ActiveCell.Offset(-3, 5), ActiveCell.Offset(0, 10)).Select
This uses the Offset property of the ActiveCell object to specify a range relative to the currently selected cell. The Offset property takes an argument that represents the row and column of the offset. A negative value represents up (for the row) and left (for the column). A positive value is down (for the row) and right (for the column). You can also use a value of 0, which represents the current row or column.
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2268) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Selecting a Range of Cells Relative to the Current Cell.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here:
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