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Adding a color to alternate rows or columns (often called color banding) can make the data in your worksheet easier to scan. To format alternate rows or columns, you can quickly apply a preset table format. By using this method, alternate row or column shading is automatically applied when you add rows and columns. Here’s how:

1. Select the range of cells that you want to format.
2. Click Home > Format as Table,
3. Pick a table style that has alternate row shading.
4. To change the shading from rows to columns, select the table, click Design, and then uncheck the Banded Rows box and check the Banded Columns box.

Tip: If you want to keep a banded table style without the table functionality, you can convert the table to a data range, Color banding won’t automatically continue as you add more rows or columns but you can copy alternate color formats to new rows by using Format Painter,

Is there a shortcut to highlight every other row in Excel?

Highlight every other row in Excel using banded rows – The fastest and easiest way to apply row shading in Excel is by using predefined table styles. Along with other benefits of tables such as automatic filtering, color banding is applied to rows by default. If you’d rather have alternate row shading only, without the table functionality, you can easily convert the table back to a usual range. To do this, select any cell within your table, right click and choose Convert to Range from the context menu. Note. After performing the table-to-range transformation, you won’t get the automatic color banding for newly added rows. Another disadvantage is that if you sort the data, your color bands will travel with the original rows and your nice zebra stripe pattern will get distorted.

How do you highlight every other row in sheets?

Select Every Other Row in Google Sheets – As with Excel, you can select every other row in a Google Sheet by selecting the first row and then holding down the CTRL key and selecting each alternate row thereafter. You can also use conditional formatting and filtering to select every other row.

Highlight the cells whose rows you wish to select. In the Menu, select Format > Conditional Formatting,

Select (1) Custom formula is from the Format cells if list and then (2) type in the following formula:

=MOD(ROW(B3),2)=0 Then (3) select the color you wish every other row in the selection to be formatted with.

1. Click Done to format the sheet.
2. Then create a filter to filter the rows by color. In the Menu, select Data > Create a filter,

In the filter drop-down list at the top of one of the columns, select Filter by Color > Fill Color and then select which color to filter on.

Every other row is now shown. See also : How to Display Data With Banded Rows

How do I highlight two rows not next to each other in Excel?

Select non-adjacent ranges – In Excel, you can select nonadjacent ranges by holding down the Ctrl key (or Command key on a Mac) while selecting individual ranges using the mouse. This method allows you to highlight multiple separate areas within a worksheet.

How do you highlight more than one row?

Select one or more rows and columns –

1. Select the letter at the top to select the entire column. Or click on any cell in the column and then press Ctrl + Space.
2. Select the row number to select the entire row. Or click on any cell in the row and then press Shift + Space.
3. To select non-adjacent rows or columns, hold Ctrl and select the row or column numbers.

How do you get every 3rd row in Excel?

Select Every nth Row – To get the every 3rd (nth) row, we change the number to divide by to 3 (n). =MOD(c3,3) We can switch the filter on to filter on the MOD result required to show specific rows.

How do I select every other column in Excel?

Select alternate columns in Excel – The simplest way to select alternate columns in Excel is by utilizing the Ctrl key in combination with the mouse. Here’s how you can do it:

Press and hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard. While holding the Ctrl key, click on the header of every other column. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have selected all the desired columns. Release the Ctrl key.

As a result, you have the alternate columns selected: By using the Ctrl key, you can handpick every 3 rd, every 4 th or every nth column, so you can apply formatting or perform calculations on specific sections of your data. This method of selecting every other or every nth column is a straightforward and effective approach, particularly for small datasets.

How do you select alternating cells?

Selecting every nth row with formula and filter – To select every nth row in Excel, you can modify the previous method slightly, by using the MOD formula for the helper column: MOD(ROW()- m, n ) Where:

• m is the row number of the first cell in your dataset minus 1
• n is the Nth row you want to select

For instance, if your data begins in row 3 and you want to select every 4 th row, then m would be 2 (row 3 minus 1) and n would be 4: =MOD(ROW() – 2, 4) With the formula established, follow these steps to filter every Nth row in Excel:

1. Determine the m and n values for the MOD formula and enter it in the Helper column.
2. Add Excel’s auto filters to your set of data.
3. In the helper column, click on the filter arrow and uncheck the box next to Select All,
4. Check the box next to “0” to show only “0” values in the helper column. These values correspond to every Nth row, according to your chosen value of n. Click OK to apply the filter.
5. Select all of the visible rows that appear after filtering.
6. Remove the filter and delete the helper column if it’s no longer needed.