Formatting Excel Cells Based on Conditions

Instead of having the reader scan each cell, you can have the software do some legwork using conditional formatting. This allows Excel to apply a defined format to cells that meet specific criteria. These are rules you can define.

The goal is to make important information stand out so you can find it easier.

Excel already does some of this for you. For example, when you format numbers, there are options to display negative numbers in red. This is an example of a predefined format.

The program even allows you to use formatting options on individual cells or rows. The simplest method is to have Excel apply conditional formatting if it meets certain conditions or locations. This uses the “Cell Value Is” method.

Cell Value Highlight Examples Include:

• Apply a red fill if the value is less than 50
• Apply an italic, bold font style if the value is between 70 and 90
• Apply a green font color if the text contains “Montana.”
• Highlight values that are equal to 15
• Apply a yellow fill to duplicate values
• Add an Up arrow icon to cell values above 10%When viewing a large worksheet for a long time, you may eventually lose track of where your cursor is and which data you are looking at. To know exactly where you are at any moment, get Excel to automatically highlight the active row and column for you! Naturally, the highlighting should be dynamic and change every time you select another cell. Essentially, this is what we are aiming to achieve:In this tutorial, we will continue exploring the fascinating world of Excel Conditional Formatting. If you do not feel very comfortable in this area, you may want to look through the previous article first to revive the basics – How to use conditional formatting in Excel.

  Today are going to dwell on how to use Excel formulas to format individual cells and entire rows based on the values you specify or based on another cell’s value. This is often considered advanced aerobatics of Excel conditional formatting and once mastered, it will help you push the formats in your spreadsheets far beyond their common uses.