How to show a message on Status Bar in Excel

In this guide, we’re going to show you how to show a message on Status Bar in Excel.

What is Status Bar?

The status bar is the bottom section of the application window (like in some other Windows applications). It displays additional information about various details, such as workbook operations, statistical and aggregated values for a selected cell range, or Caps Lock key status.

Right-click on the bar to see available customization options. For further information, you can check our quick guide: How to customize the Excel status bar

Showing a message on Status Bar in Excel

However, displaying a custom message requires a little more work: You need to write macro to do it.

Fortunately, you do not need complex code blocks. Setting a single property is enough to show your message on the status bar: Application.StatusBar

Here is a very simple use case:

Application.StatusBar = "Can you see me?"

You can try this by typing in or copying the sample code into the Immediate window and pressing Enter key.

If you are not familiar with macros or VBA, you can jump start at How to create a macro in Excel.

The Immediate window is only for test purposes. Use the code line in workbook/worksheet events to supply information to your users dynamically. Let's take a look at some examples.

Displaying a static message from start

If you want a constant message in your status bar, write your code in Workbook_Open event which gets triggered at the initialization of your workbook and runs the code.

Insert the following code into the ThisWorkbook object in the VBA window (Ctrl + F11).

Private Sub Workbook_Open()
    Application.StatusBar = "Powered by www.spreadsheetweb.com"
End Sub

Do not forget to save your workbook as a XLSM file to keep the macros.

Displaying a cell value after each calculation

This is a common way of using the status bar. If there is a cell(s) that you need to check after each calculation, you can display its value on the status bar. Note that the code should be in the Workbook_SheetChange event for it to be triggered every time the workbook is calculated.

Place the code below in the ThisWorkbook object as well. This will display the value of cell C8 in the workbook Message on Status Bar. You can also change the sheet name and the cell reference according to your file.

Private Sub Workbook_SheetChange(ByVal Sh As Object, ByVal Target As Range)
    Application.StatusBar = Worksheets("Message on Status Bar").Range("C8")
End Sub

Displaying progress message on Status Bar

Another common use case of customizing status bar is to inform the users about the status of an active macro. If your macro takes too long to run and even if you have disabled the screen updating, users might think that their Excel is frozen.