Remove/Hide Cell Selection Box

**jake.masters** · 11-02-2012, 08:37 AM

Hi everyone,

This should be a fairly quick fix, but I can't seem to find it on google. I may be calling it the wrong thing.

I have a dashboard, so when a user clicks a cell, I don't want the cell to have the highlighted box around it. I just want it to stay as it was before they clicked on it (it makes the box illegible). Is there any way to disable this feature of excel?

If this is not possible, an equally useful solution would be to change the color of that highlighted box to an RGB value, and I could just set it to my background color.

Thanks,

Jake

**6StringJazzer** · 11-02-2012, 10:03 AM

I know of no option in Excel to allow you to control the behavior when a cell is selected by the user (I hesitate to say it's impossible). I don't understand your comment that it makes the box illegible; it doesn't change anything about how the content looks.

You can use a macro to change the formatting of a selected cell to anything you want, such as setting the fill color and font color, but you can't get rid of the bold outline that indicates the cell is selected.

**jake.masters** · 11-02-2012, 10:11 AM

Ah, I was unaware of this. It does not make it illegible, but it certainly makes it more difficult to read.

Would you happen to know if you are still able to select a drop down box if the cell is protected, and unlocked cells are not available for selection?

Thanks for you're help, I assumed there was some VBA I could use.

**jake.masters** · 11-02-2012, 10:15 AM

I'm not sure why I asked you...I tried it myself and it is not possible to change cells that you cannot select. Thanks anyway.

Can anyone think of any other way I could achieve this?

**6StringJazzer** · 11-02-2012, 02:20 PM

Maybe you can describe the root of what you are trying to achieve. In your last two posts you described a problem where you need to change a cell that you can't select. That is a different problem than being able to select a cell but not outlining it, as you described in the first post. If we can define this a little better I (or someone else) may have some out-of-the-box (no pun intended) ideas to attack this.

BTW I still don't know what you are seeing when you select a cell. I have never seen any case where selecting a cell makes it more difficult to read, except if you are selecting multiple cells. When selecting multiple cells, in addition to the border you also see a light blue shading and the shading color could clash the font color.

**jake.masters** · 11-02-2012, 03:29 PM

Essentially I have a drop down box that when I click on it, I wish that it does not have the selection box around it. It my last post, I was thinking that maybe protecting the cells would allow you to change the cells without having the box, because when a sheet is protected you cannot click on it.

All I am trying to achieve it to make something I have spent the last two weeks creating look a little cleaner . Hiding the selection box around my drop down would be the best way to do it, but again, if it is not possible, I understand the constraints of programs and I will just have to live with it.

**6StringJazzer** · 11-02-2012, 07:43 PM

Essentially I have a drop down box that when I click on it, I wish that it does not have the selection box around it.

Aha! That is the essence of your question and your first post could have contained only this sentence I would know what to do!

The best way to do this is to use a combobox control. Example attached. [combobox on worksheet.xlsm] The only tradeoff is that with the combobox, you have to make the file macro-enabled even though you don't actually write any macros. So the user has to allow macros to run.

To create the combobox, click on Developer, then Design Mode, then Insert and select the combobox under the ActiveX section. Then just drag out a combobox on your sheet wherever you need it.

To configure the combobox, there are two things you need to do. While still in Design Mode, right-click on the combobox and select Properties. Then:

1. Set up the data list. Find the ListFillRange property and enter the range containing the items to be displayed in the list. In my example I used a named range MyList but you can also use a range reference like A1:A10 if the cells are on the same sheet.

2. Set up the cell to contain the result. Find the LinkedCell property and enter a cell reference. This cell will contain the item that the user selects from the list. In my example it is covered up by the combobox, but it can be referenced by formulas in other cells.