Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 15, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
Vanita asked if there is a way to select cells containing a specific color. Accomplishing the task is easy if you are using Excel 2003. Just follow these steps:
Figure 1. The Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
Figure 2. The Patterns tab of the Find Format dialog box.
Figure 3. The expanded Find and Replace dialog box.
If you are using Excel 97, Excel 2000, or Excel 2002 the only way to select cells of a particular color is to use a macro. Consider the macro shown here:
Sub SelectColoredCells() Dim rCell As Range Dim lColor As Long Dim rColored As Range 'Select the color by name (8 possible) 'vbBlack, vbBlue, vbGreen, vbCyan, 'vbRed, vbMagenta, vbYellow, vbWhite lColor = vbBlue 'If you prefer, you can use the RGB function 'to specify a color 'lColor = RGB(0, 0, 255) Set rColored = Nothing For Each rCell In Selection If rCell.Interior.Color = lColor Then If rColored Is Nothing Then Set rColored = rCell Else Set rColored = Union(rColored, rCell) End If End If Next If rColored Is Nothing Then MsgBox "No cells match the color" Else rColored.Select MsgBox "Selected cells match the color:" & _ vbCrLf & rColored.Address End If Set rCell = Nothing Set rColored = Nothing End Sub
To use the macro, select a range of cells before running it. The macro then steps through each selected cell and compares its color with whatever color you specify in lColor. If a match is found, then the cell is added to a selection set. When completed, the macro selects only those matching cells, and then exits.
If you would like to find out other macro-based solutions, you can refer to the following article at the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/142122
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2396) 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: Finding Cells Filled with a Particular Color.
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