How to highlight Non-adjacent cells in Excel.

Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool widely used for data analysis, calculation, and organizing information. While many users are familiar with basic cell formatting, there are hidden features and techniques that can enhance your Excel skills. One such feature is the ability to highlight non-adjacent cells, which can be useful for various tasks, such as data categorization or visual emphasis. 

In this blog post, we’ll delve into the steps to highlight non-adjacent cells in Excel, helping you take your spreadsheet game to the next level. Here we have a random dataset in which we will highlight non-adjacent cells using different but simple methods. Let’s have a look at the dataset first.

Method – 1 Using the Ctrl key.

The Ctrl key on the keyboard helps to select random or Non-adjacent cells in Excel.

Step – 1 Select single non-adjacent cells

• Hold the Ctrl key on the keyboard.
• Then keep clicking on the cells you want to select. 
• This will select all non-adjacent cells.
• Now you can highlight the cells by any method. We are currently using the simple bold option from the Font group available on the Home tab.

Step – 2 Select a range of non-adacent cells.

• For selecting the range of non-adjacent cells click and select the first range by simply holding the left mouse and button and dragging over the cells to be selected.
• Now press and hold the Ctrl key.
• While holding the Ctrl key, press and hold left mouse button and drag the cursor over the range of cells you want to select as shown in the image.
• After selecting all non-adjacent cells, you can change the fill colors of the cells to highlight them by going to the Font group and using fill color bucket as shown.

Method – 2 Using Name Box

Name box can be a very useful option when you want to select non-adjacent cells and you don’t want to drag the mouse over the cells. This is very helpful in case of big spreadsheets, where you have thousands of rows.

Step – 1 Write cell addresses in Name Box.

• Click on the Name Box and type the address of cells separated by a comma you want to select.
• You can enter the address of a single cell or a range of cells as well as shown in the image.

Step – 2 Selecting the cells.

• After you have typed the address of the cells you want to select, hit Enter.
• Typed cell addresses will be selected.
• To highlight the cells, go to the Font group and click on Bold option.