How to highlight two different columns in Excel

You can watch a video tutorial here.

Excel provides several options for formatting cells. You may want to draw the reader’s attention to particular pieces of information on a sheet by highlighting a column. To do this, you can change the background color of the cell so that it stands out. When you need to highlight two adjacent columns, you can select the columns and then highlight them by changing the background color of the cell. In this example, we will see how to highlight two columns that are not adjacent to each other. 

Option 1 – Use the button on the ribbon

Step 1 – Select the first column

• Select the top cell in the first column to be selected
• Press Ctrl+Shift+Down arrow
• The data in the column is selected

Step 2 – Select the second column

• Hold down the Ctrl key
• Click on the top cell in the second column
• Press Shift+Down arrow

Step 3 – Choose a color

• Go to Home > Font
• Expand the Fill Color dropdown
• Select a color

Step 4 – Check the result

• The selected columns are highlighted

Option 2 – Use the Format Cells window

Step 1 – Select the first column

• Select the top cell in the first column to be selected
• Press Ctrl+Shift+Down arrow
• The data in the column is selected

Step 2 – Select the second column

• Hold down the Ctrl key
• Click on the top cell in the second column
• Press Shift+Down arrow

Step 3 – Open the Format Cells window

• Right-click and select Format Cells  from the context menu

OR

Go to Home > Number  and click on the arrow to expand the menu

OR

Go to Home > Cells > Format > Format Cells

OR

Press Ctrl+1

Step 4 – Choose a color

• Go to the Fill tab
• Select a color
• Click OK

Step 5 – Check the result

• The selected columns are highlighted