How to Unhighlight in Excel
To unhighlight cells in Excel, select the cells, go to Home > Fill Color, and choose No Fill — this removes the colored background instantly. If the color refuses to disappear, it is almost always conditional formatting, which you remove from Home > Conditional Formatting > Clear Rules instead.
Most people who search for how to “unhighlight” Excel mean one of two different things: removing a colored fill from a cell, or deselecting cells you accidentally selected. This guide covers both, plus the trickier cases — conditional formatting, table styles, and highlighting that comes back every time you reopen the workbook. The steps work on Excel for Microsoft 365, Excel 2024, 2021, 2019, and Excel for the web unless noted.
Quick reference: which kind of “highlight” do you have?
| What you see | What it actually is | How to remove it |
|---|---|---|
| A solid background color you applied | Cell fill color | Home > Fill Color > No Fill |
| Color that changes with the data | Conditional formatting | Home > Conditional Formatting > Clear Rules |
| Banded rows in a table | Table style | Table Design > clear style or convert to range |
| Colored text, not the cell | Font color | Home > Font Color > Automatic |
| Cells appear “lit up” / selected | Active selection | Click any single cell to deselect |
If you are not sure which one you have, click a single colored cell and look at the Fill Color button on the Home tab. If the cell has a fill, that button shows the matching color. If the button shows no color but the cell still looks shaded, you are dealing with conditional formatting.
Method 1: Remove cell fill color (the most common fix)
This is the answer for “clear cell color” and “remove highlight Excel” when you manually applied a color.
- Select the cell or range. To grab everything, press Ctrl + A (Windows) or Cmd + A (Mac) once for the data region, twice for the whole sheet.
- On the Home tab, click the small arrow next to the Fill Color bucket icon.
- Choose No Fill.
The background returns to white (technically “no fill,” which lets gridlines show through). This is different from filling cells with white — see the FAQ below for why that distinction matters. If you need the opposite task later, our guide on how to change cell color in Excel walks through applying fills cleanly.
Keyboard shortcut for fill color
Excel has no single dedicated “no fill” shortcut, but you can reach it fast:
- Windows: Press Alt > H > H to open the Fill Color menu, then press N for No Fill.
- Mac: There is no built-in keystroke for No Fill, so use the ribbon button, or assign Fill Color to the Quick Access Toolbar.
If you do a lot of formatting work, it is worth memorizing a few of the best Excel keyboard shortcuts so these become muscle memory.
Method 2: Clear all formatting at once
If the cell has highlighting plus bold, borders, or number formatting you also want gone, clearing formats is faster than removing each piece:
- Select the cells.
- Go to Home > Editing group > Clear (the eraser icon).
- Choose Clear Formats.
This strips fill, font color, borders, and styles but keeps the cell’s values and formulas. It will not touch conditional formatting, though. For a fuller walkthrough, see how to clear formatting in Excel and the related guide on removing formatting in Excel.
Method 3: Remove conditional formatting highlights
Conditional formatting is the number one reason a highlight “won’t go away.” The color is generated by a rule, so changing the fill manually does nothing — the rule reapplies the color instantly.
To remove it:
- Select the affected range (or the whole sheet with Ctrl + A).
- Go to Home > Conditional Formatting > Clear Rules.
- Choose Clear Rules from Selected Cells or Clear Rules from Entire Sheet.
If you only want to remove one specific rule and keep the others, open Conditional Formatting > Manage Rules, select the rule, and click Delete Rule. Our dedicated post on removing conditional formatting in Excel covers this in depth, and if you are not sure which cells carry a rule, find cells with conditional formatting shows how to locate them. To learn the underlying feature, see how to use conditional formatting in Excel.
Method 4: Remove highlighting from a table
If your colored cells are inside an Excel Table (Insert > Table), the banded “highlight” comes from the table style, not a fill:
- Click anywhere in the table.
- Go to the Table Design tab (called Table on Mac).
- In the Table Styles gallery, choose None, or uncheck Banded Rows in Table Style Options.
To strip the table formatting entirely while keeping the data, see how to remove table formatting in Excel or unformat a table in Excel.
Method 5: Deselect highlighted (selected) cells
Sometimes “unhighlight” just means the blue selection highlight, not a color. Excel highlights whatever is selected, and that visual disappears the moment you click elsewhere.
- Click any single cell to drop the entire selection.
- To remove some cells from a larger selection without losing the rest, hold Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (Mac) and click the cells you want to deselect — a feature available in Microsoft 365.
- Press Esc to cancel a marching-ants selection (the dashed border left after a copy).
There is a full walkthrough in how to deselect cells in Excel, and a companion piece on selecting cells in Excel if you want to control selections more precisely.
A note on the old
Ctrl + Shift + 8trick: that shortcut selects the current region around a cell — it does not unhighlight or clear color. If you have seen it suggested for unhighlighting, it does the opposite of what you want.
Windows vs. Mac quick comparison
| Action | Windows | Mac |
|---|---|---|
| Select whole sheet | Ctrl + A (twice) | Cmd + A (twice) |
| Open Fill Color menu | Alt, H, H | Ribbon (no keystroke) |
| Apply No Fill | Alt, H, H, then N | Fill Color > No Fill |
| Clear Formats | Alt, H, E, F | Home > Clear > Clear Formats |
| Cancel copy outline | Esc | Esc |
Troubleshooting: the highlight keeps coming back
- It reappears after you click away. This is conditional formatting. Use Method 3.
- No Fill leaves a gray tint. That tint is the gridlines showing through, which is normal. If you want a pure white look, apply a white fill instead — though this hides gridlines.
- Color comes back when you reopen the file. A saved conditional formatting rule or a table style is reapplying it. Clear the rule (Method 3) or the table style (Method 4), then save.
- Only the text changes color, not the cell. That is font color, not fill. Set Home > Font Color > Automatic.
- You see a green corner triangle, not a highlight. That is an error indicator, not formatting — see how to remove the green triangle in Excel.
- A whole column looks shaded. Check whether you have a filter or color filter applied; removing filters in Excel resets the view.
If you later want to count or analyze colored cells before removing them, counting highlighted cells in Excel and counting colored cells explain how.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I unhighlight in Excel?
Select the highlighted cells, go to Home > Fill Color, and choose No Fill. If the color does not disappear, it is conditional formatting — remove it with Home > Conditional Formatting > Clear Rules. If “unhighlight” means deselecting cells, just click a single cell anywhere on the sheet.
How do I remove highlight in Excel without removing other formatting?
Use the Fill Color > No Fill option rather than Clear Formats. No Fill only removes the background color and leaves bold, borders, and number formats intact. Clear Formats, by contrast, strips everything.
How do I clear cell color for the entire sheet?
Press Ctrl + A (Windows) or Cmd + A (Mac) twice to select the whole worksheet, then choose Home > Fill Color > No Fill. If any color remains, the sheet has conditional formatting rules — go to Conditional Formatting > Clear Rules > Clear Rules from Entire Sheet.
Why won’t the highlight go away in Excel?
The most common cause is conditional formatting, which regenerates the color from a rule, so changing the fill manually has no effect. Remove the rule under Home > Conditional Formatting > Clear Rules or Manage Rules. The second most common cause is an Excel Table style — clear it from the Table Design tab.
What is the keyboard shortcut to remove cell highlighting?
There is no single dedicated key, but on Windows you can press Alt, H, H, N to apply No Fill, or Alt, H, E, F to Clear Formats. On Mac, use the ribbon buttons or add Fill Color to the Quick Access Toolbar. For more efficient formatting, browse our top 10 Excel shortcuts.
Does deleting a cell’s contents also remove the highlight?
No. Deleting contents (pressing Delete) clears the value but keeps the fill color, font color, and any formatting. To remove the color, use No Fill or Clear Formats as described above. See clearing the contents of multiple cells for the difference between clearing values and clearing formats.
