Programmatically change formatting in worksheet rows containing selected cells

You can change the font of an entire row that contains a selected cell so that the text is bold.

Applies to: The information in this topic applies to document-level projects and VSTO Add-in projects for Excel. For more information, see Features available by Office application and project type.

1. Declare a static variable to keep track of the previously selected row.

   • C#
   • VB

   static int previousRow = 0;
   

2. Retrieve a reference to the current cell using the ActiveCell property.

   • C#
   • VB

   Excel.Range currentCell = this.Application.ActiveCell;
   

3. Style the current row bold using the EntireRow property of the active cell.

   • C#
   • VB

   currentCell.EntireRow.Font.Bold = true;
   

4. Ensure that the current value of previousRow is not 0. A 0 (zero) indicates that this is the first time through this code.

   • C#
   • VB

   if (previousRow != 0)
   

5. Ensure that the current row is different from the previous row.

   • C#
   • VB

   if (currentCell.Row != previousRow)
   

6. Retrieve a reference to a range that represents the row that was previously selected, and set that row to not be bold.

   • C#
   • VB

   Excel.Range rng = (Excel.Range)ws.Rows[previousRow];
   rng.EntireRow.Font.Bold = false;
   

7. Store the current row so that it can become the previous row on the next pass.

   • C#
   • VB

   previousRow = currentCell.Row;
   

   The following example shows the complete method.

// Keep track of the previously bolded row.
static int previousRow = 0;

private void BoldCurrentRow(Excel.Worksheet ws)
{
    // Work with the current active cell.
    Excel.Range currentCell = this.Application.ActiveCell;

    // Bold the current row.
    currentCell.EntireRow.Font.Bold = true; 

    // If a pass has been done previously, make the old row not bold.
    // Make sure previousRow is not 0 (otherwise this is your first pass through).
    if (previousRow != 0)
    
        // Make sure the current row is not the same as the previous row.
        if (currentCell.Row != previousRow)
        {
            Excel.Range rng = (Excel.Range)ws.Rows[previousRow];
            rng.EntireRow.Font.Bold = false;
        }

    // Store the new row number for the next pass.
    previousRow = currentCell.Row;
}

Private Sub BoldCurrentRow(ByVal ws As Excel.Worksheet)

    ' Keep track of the previously bolded row.
    Static previousRow As Integer = 0

    ' Work with the current active cell.
    Dim currentCell As Excel.Range = Me.Application.ActiveCell

    ' Bold the current row.
    currentCell.EntireRow.Font.Bold = True

    ' If a pass has been done previously, make the old row not bold.
    ' Make sure previousRow is not 0 (otherwise this is your first pass through).
    If previousRow <> 0 Then

        ' Make sure the current row is not the same as the previous row.
        If currentCell.Row <> previousRow Then

            Dim rng As Excel.Range = DirectCast(ws.Rows(previousRow), Excel.Range)
            rng.EntireRow.Font.Bold = False
        End If
    End If

    ' Store the new row number for the next pass.
    previousRow = currentCell.Row
End Sub