Row and column cross-hair tinting removal

[Zarathrustra]

I have accidentally switched on some function ('undo' doesn't offer) which tints the whole row/s and column/s of the active cell. It is not only disconcerting, but seems to slow moving around the spreadsheet too.

I attach a snip picture in a Word doc.

How do I turn this off please?

[dosydos]

my guess there is some sort of macro running in the background. Does the file have an .xlsm extension?

Go to the DEVELOPER RIBBON. Select VISUAL BASIC. In the new window that opened press the STOP button as shown below.

[Zarathrustra]

Thanks for the suggestion dosydos. Alas, that does not change anything.

My feeling is that this is a standard Excel function, but I've not been able to find anything about it either in the Excel Help on via Google.

[ELeGault]

There is code running.

Now this can be done 100% in VB, or a slight combo of VB and Conditional Formatting (Which is my preferred method when making something like this)

Let me warn against this first. Having this run on your document is forcing it to calculate with EVERY CLICK. This can be quite taxing if you run something like this in workbooks with many formulas...



Conditional Formatting

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Obviously that reference of A2 should be the First ROW, First COLUMN that you are applying this condition to

Next you need to go into your VB window CTRL+F11 and add Application.Calculate to the default state.

This wll be going on the sheet you are working on so open the code related to yoru sheet... lets assume that sheet is sheet1

Double click on it and change the code selection from general to worksheet.

Here you will see

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Again this is the default state, simply add the application.calculate to that code and it will auto calculate every time you click on the sheet

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You are saying...wait I dont want to turn it on... I want to turn it off!

Great point, but now you know where to go to set it up so you can go to the same and shut it down!

Remove Application.Calculate and that will stop it from running on every click!

Go into Conditional formatting, Manage Rules. Show Formatting rules for THIS WORKSHEET and locate the rule that is likely similar to the one I have shown. if you are unsure and have a lot of rules, feel free to share someone here can help you spot it.

IF there is not conditional formatting than this is happening entirely in the code (Which is in my opinion bad as this not only creates a habit of clearing and setting formatting but is labor on top of labor that kills the processing ...just bad form...

Regardless of opinion this means there is a code running on the sheet - you should spot it when you go in to remove the application.calculate as described above...

Good Luck

[ELeGault]

Just to add to the fun of it all... if you have a predefined area (WINDOW) that you want this to run on only... you can dictate the calculate within that step

This would be for a window range of A2:H30 but you can define this dynamically with stoppers in the sheet... Point being that this can be refined so that the calculating only occurs while you interact with the small window that this is needed in.

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The more you understand about how to add it, the more likely you can remove it and spot variations of it!

[Zarathrustra]

Thanks EleGault for responding. But I cannot relate what you have written to my problem. My provided download has no A2 shown.

And your instructions about VB macros is effectively Greek to me.

[ELeGault]

Heh - is this a document you can share?

The VBA - Greek as it may be, if you hit CTRL+F11 you will open up Excels VB Editor.
In the Editor you should see a Project Explorer where you will recognize the workbook name you are in as well as the sheets.

Double click on the Sheet name in which this cross hair seems to reside

In there you should see some code similar to what I have shared but could be a lot more if this action is being done entirely with VB (Ideally not as that would be laborious)

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The other location to review is your Conditional Formatting

On the HOME tab in the RIBBON up top you will find CONDITIONAL FORMATTING

Click the down arrow on that icon and click MANAGE RULES

In here you should see an option saying "Show Formatting Rules For:" with a drop down likely saying Current Selection, change that to This Worksheet

A list of rules should appear that you can now delete - this will stop the highlight but the VB will still run on each click... I dont foresee this being done without the active VB


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IF - you can share the workbook (DELETE THE ENTIRE PAGE OF DATA IF YOU NEED TO) - highlight all and tap the delete key on the keyboard and it should be an empty sheet. save as WorkbookName - Sample and send it over
If its not sensitive information and the book is not giant, send it over

Anyone here should be able to assist with a file - I am only speculating on its design through that image but will be able to help further with the file.