Microsoft KB Archive/157412

= XL97: Select Method May Select More Cells Than Expected =

Article ID: 157412

Article Last Modified on 11/23/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q157412





SYMPTOMS
When you run a Visual Basic for Applications macro that uses the Select method to select a specific range of cells in Microsoft Excel 97, the macro may select a larger range of cells than you specified.



CAUSE
This problem may occur when you run a macro that uses the Select method to select a range of cells and performs an action on the selected cells.

If you programmatically select a merged cell in a range, the selection may be enlarged such that it encompasses the columns and/or rows that are occupied by the merged cell. For example, if the range A2:C2 is merged, the following statement selects cells A1:C10 and not A1:A10 as you might expect: ActiveSheet.Range("A1:A10").Select The selection is expanded to include B1:C10 because range A1:A10 contains a merged cell that extends into cells in columns B and C.

NOTE: In this scenario in Microsoft Excel 97, you cannot select only cells A1:A10 with the mouse. Microsoft Excel automatically extends the selection to include cells B1:C10 because the range A2:C2 is merged.

This behavior is by design of Microsoft Excel.



WORKAROUND
Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact a Microsoft Certified Partner or the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about Microsoft Certified Partners, please visit the following Microsoft Web site:

https://partner.microsoft.com/global/30000104

For more information about the support options that are available and about how to contact Microsoft, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;CNTACTMS

To work around this behavior, use one of the following methods.

Method 1
Apply the property or method to specific a Range object rather than the Selection object if the selection contains merged cells that span cells outside of that specified range.

For example, the following macro selects cells A1:A10 and applies a bold font format to the selection: Sub FormatCells

ActiveSheet.Range("A1:A10").Select Selection.Font.Bold = True

End Sub If cells A2:C2 are merged, this macro applies a bold font format to the cells A1:C10. If you wish to limit the application of the bold font format to cells A1:A10, use the following macro instead. The following example applies a bold font format to the specific Range object: Sub FormatCells

ActiveSheet.Range("A1:A10").Font.Bold = True

End Sub

Method 2
Another alternative is to check whether merged cells exist in the range prior to performing an action. The following macro determines if there are any merged cells in the range A1:A10 prior to formatting the cells: Sub FormatCells

ActiveSheet.Range("A1:A10").Select

'Apply Bold to the selection if it does not contain merged cells. If Not(Selection.MergeCells = True) Then Selection.Font.Bold = True End If

End Sub

Additional query words: XL97 8.00 8.0 selected selecting code

Keywords: kbdtacode kbprogramming KB157412

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