Show cell selection in Excel when not in focus

Question

It's really annoying that Excel (2003 and 2007) doesn't show what cell, row or column that is selected when the window is not in focus. I typically want to refer to the current cell or row while working in another application.

Is there any workaround or fix that will make the cell/row highlighted when not in focus? I know that you can copy a cell (Ctrl+C) but it's kind of tiresome to do that every time.

Answer 1

In Excel 2003 the currently selected cell address is shown in the upper left. Although the cell isn't highlighted, it gets you partway there.

Answer 2

You can do something like this if you need to. Although it might be sheet specific

Dim wasActive As String

Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
If wasActive = Empty Then wasActive = "A1"
Range(wasActive).Interior.ColorIndex = "0"
ActiveCell.Interior.ColorIndex = "6"
wasActive = ActiveCell.Address
End Sub

This changes what is not active back to white, and changes the activecell to yellow. and still shows when the window is not active. Not sure this is the best way, but it works