Determine Height & Width of Selected Cell Range With Excel VBA
What This VBA Code Does
When creating dashboards you will want to try your best to keep your spacing even and the sizes of your callouts the same. This means you need to measure your shapes and your cells. Shapes are easy to measure as there are height/width modifiers in Excel’s Ribbon UI. However, measuring cells can be a little more taxing.
To solve this, I have developed a VBA macro that can provide you with measurements of your currently selected range of cells. Enjoy!
VBA Code – Pixels
This first VBA snippet will present you with a message box displaying the height and width of your selection in the measuring unit of pixels.
Sub MeasureSelection_Pixels()
'PURPOSE: Provide Height and Width of Currently Selected Cell Range
'SOURCE: www.TheSpreadsheetGuru.com/the-code-vault
Dim cell As Range
Dim Width As Long
Dim Height As Long
'Measure Selection Height
For Each cell In Selection.Cells.Columns(1)
Height = Height + cell.Height
Next cell
'Measure Selection Width
For Each cell In Selection.Cells.Rows(1)
Width = Width + cell.Width
Next cell
'Report Results
MsgBox "Height: " & Height & "px" & vbCr & "Width: " _
& Width & "px", , "Dimensions"
End SubVBA Code – Points
This second VBA snippet will present you with a message box displaying the height and width of your selection in the measuring unit of points. This version of the code converts pixels into points by dividing them by 72. Points are more practical to use inside Excel because it is the unit of measurement displayed while resizing objects (charts, shapes, etc…).
Sub MeasureSelection_Points()
'PURPOSE: Provide Height and Width of Currently Selected Cell Range
'SOURCE: www.TheSpreadsheetGuru.com/the-code-vault
Dim cell As Range
Dim Width As Double
Dim Height As Double
'Measure Selection Height
For Each cell In Selection.Cells.Columns(1)
Height = Height + cell.Height
Next cell
'Measure Selection Width
For Each cell In Selection.Cells.Rows(1)
Width = Width + cell.Width
Next cell
'Report Results
MsgBox "Height: " & Round(Height / 72, 2) & "pts" & vbCr & "Width: " _
& Round(Width / 72, 2) & "pts", , "Dimensions"
End SubUsing VBA Code Found On The Internet
Now that you’ve found some VBA code that could potentially solve your Excel automation problem, what do you do with it? If you don’t necessarily want to learn how to code VBA and are just looking for the fastest way to implement this code into your spreadsheet, I wrote an article (with video) that explains how to get the VBA code you’ve found running on your spreadsheet.
Getting Started Automating Excel
Are you new to VBA and not sure where to begin? Check out my quickstart guide to learning VBA. This article won’t overwhelm you with fancy coding jargon, as it provides you with a simplistic and straightforward approach to the basic things I wish I knew when trying to teach myself how to automate tasks in Excel with VBA Macros.
Also, if you haven’t checked out Excel’s latest automation feature called Power Query, I have put together a beginner’s guide for automating with Excel’s Power Query feature as well! This little-known built-in Excel feature allows you to merge and clean data automatically with little to no coding!
How Do I Modify This To Fit My Specific Needs?
Chances are this post did not give you the exact answer you were looking for. We all have different situations and it’s impossible to account for every particular need one might have. That’s why I want to share with you: My Guide to Getting the Solution to your Problems FAST! In this article, I explain the best strategies I have come up with over the years to get quick answers to complex problems in Excel, PowerPoint, VBA, you name it!
I highly recommend that you check this guide out before asking me or anyone else in the comments section to solve your specific problem. I can guarantee that 9 times out of 10, one of my strategies will get you the answer(s) you are needing faster than it will take me to get back to you with a possible solution. I try my best to help everyone out, but sometimes I don’t have time to fit everyone’s questions in (there never seem to be quite enough hours in the day!).
I wish you the best of luck and I hope this tutorial gets you heading in the right direction!
After 10+ years of creating macros and developing add-ins, I've compiled all the hacks I wish I had known years ago!
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Chris Newman
Chris is a finance professional and Excel MVP recognized by Microsoft since 2016. With his expertise, he founded TheSpreadsheetGuru blog to help fellow Excel users, where he shares his vast creative solutions & expertise. In addition, he has developed over 7 widely-used Excel Add-ins that have been embraced by individuals and companies worldwide.