Shade Alternate Rows in Excel

Excel Shade Alternate Rows

If you are a regular user of excel then you must have come across excel tables at some point in time. In most of the excel tables, you must have seen every alternate row is shaded by a common color like the below one.

So if you are using an excel table tool you need not break your sweat at all. But how do we shade alternate rows in excel without using tables is the trick we need to learn and this article is dedicated to that.

How to Shade Alternate Rows in Excel with Methods?

We can shade every other row by using conditional formatting technique and we can do this by following multiple methods.

Below is the data I am going to use, you can download the workbook to practice along with me.

Method #1 – Without Using Helper Column

The first method we are going to use is conditional formatting without using the helper column. Follow the below steps to shade every alternate row in excel.

Step 1: Select the entire data (without heading).

Step 2: Go to Conditional Formatting and choose “New Rule”.

Step 3: In the next window choose “Use a formula to determine which cells to format”.

Step 4: In the conditional formatting formula, the bar enters the below formula.

Step 5: Now click on the Format tab to choose the formatting color.

Step 6: Now it will open up the format cells window. From this window choose the tab “FILL” and choose the colour as per your wish.

Step 7: Now click on Ok to see the shades in an alternative row.

If you are wondering how this has been done then say thanks to the formula we have put in i.e. =MOD(ROW(),2)=1

MOD is the formula to be used to get the remainder value when we divide one number by the other number. For example, MOD (3, 2) will return 1 as the remainder i.e. when we divide number 3 by number 2 we will get the remainder value as 1.

Similarly, ROW() function will return the respective row number and the same row number will be divided by number 2 and if the remainder is equal to number 1 then that row will be highlighted or shaded by the color we have chosen.

Method #2 – By Using Helper Column

By simply inserting helper column of serial numbers we can shade alternate rows in excel. For this first insert serial number column like the below one.

Now select the data except the helper column.

Again open conditional formatting and choose the same method but this time we need to change only the formula. Insert below formula.

Click on OK, we will get an alternative shaded row.

If you look at the previous one and this one it is slightly different. In the previous one from the second row of the data was shaded but in this one starting from the first row of the data, itself row has been highlighted.

Method #3 – Using VBA Coding

You can simply use the below VBA code to shade every alternative row. Use below code to shade alternate rows in excel.

Code:

Sub Shade_Rows()

  Dim Rng As Range
  Set Rng = Selection

Rng.FormatConditions.Add xlExpression, Formula1:="=MOD(ROW(),2)=1"
Selection.FormatConditions(Selection.FormatConditions.Count).SetFirstPriority

  With Selection.FormatConditions(1).Interior
    .PatternColorIndex = xlAutomatic
    .ThemeColor = xlThemeColorAccent5
    .TintAndShade = 0.399945066682943
  End With

  Selection.FormatConditions(1).StopIfTrue = False

End Sub

For this first, you need to select the range of cells that needs to shaded then run the macro.

Things to Remember

• Not only alternative rows you can shade every 3^rd row, 4^th row or 5^th row and so on. For that, you need to change the divisor value in MOD function from 2 to 3.
• Conditional formatting works on the basis of logical results TRUE or FALSE.
• ISODD and ISEVEN functions are useful with helper column of serial numbers.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to Shade Alternate Rows in Excel. Here we discuss the top 3 methods to shade alternate rows in excel along with examples and downloadable excel template. You may learn more about excel from the following articles –

• Insert New Line to the Cell
• Exporting Excel Files into PDF 
• Excel Box and Whisker Plot
• Change Font Color in VBA
• Sum by Color in Excel methods
• How to Add Alternate Row Color in Excel?
• How to Sort by Color in Excel?