Row & Column Highlighter for Google Sheets — Focus Crosshair

Row & Column Highlighter for Google Sheets adds an Excel-style focus crosshair to Google Sheets. As you click or arrow around a spreadsheet, two soft, click-through bands highlight the active cell's entire row and entire column, so you never lose your place scanning a wide or tall sheet.

It works by watching the small selection-box element Google Sheets already draws around your active cell, reading its on-screen position on every animation frame, and repositioning two overlay bands to match. The extension never reads, modifies, or stores any of your spreadsheet's actual cell data — it only tracks where the selection box sits on screen. The overlay is click-through, so it never intercepts a click, a drag, or a scroll.

What it does

• Highlights the active cell's full row and full column with two semi-transparent bands, updated live as you move around the sheet.
• Free: a fixed light-blue crosshair works out of the box on any spreadsheet — no account or setup required.
• Pro (one-time $5, no subscription): pick any highlight color and adjust opacity from 2% to 80% with a live slider.
• Pro: save a look as your default for every spreadsheet, or save a different look per spreadsheet that's remembered next time you open that file.
• A master on/off toggle in the toolbar popup turns the crosshair off entirely, per browser profile.
• If Google Sheets ever changes its page structure in a way that breaks detection, a small on-page notice says a fix is coming — it never fails silently, and your spreadsheet data is never touched either way.

How to use it

Install the extension, then open any Google Sheet. The light-blue crosshair appears automatically around whichever cell is active. Click the toolbar icon to open the popup: toggle the highlight on or off, and — on Pro — pick a color, drag the opacity slider, and choose whether to save that look as your default for all sheets or just for the spreadsheet you have open. Pro status is checked through ExtensionPay; if that check is briefly unreachable, a short-lived local cache keeps a previously-confirmed Pro user from being locked out.

Works only on docs.google.com/spreadsheets pages. No spreadsheet content ever leaves your browser.

Install: Add Row & Column Highlighter to Chrome.

See the privacy policy for exactly what data this extension touches and where it goes.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Google. "Google Sheets" is a trademark of Google LLC.