Topic 1 Conditional Formatting
Topic 1 Conditional Formatting
Conditional formatting allows you to automatically apply formatting—such as colors, icons, and data
bars—to one or more cells based on the cell value. To do this, you'll need to create a conditional
formatting rule. For example, a conditional formatting rule might be: If the value is less than $2000,
color the cell red. By applying this rule, you'd be able to quickly see which cells contain values less than
$2000.
In our example, we have a worksheet containing sales data, and we'd like to see which salespeople are
meeting their monthly sales goals. The sales goal is $4000 per month, so we'll create a conditional
formatting rule for any cells containing a value higher than 4000.
2. From the Home tab, click the Conditional Formatting command. A drop-down menu will
appear.
3. Hover the mouse over the desired conditional formatting type, then select the desired
rule from the menu that appears. In our example, we want to highlight cells that
are greater than $4000.
4. A dialog box will appear. Enter the desired value(s) into the blank field. In our example,
we'll enter 4000 as our value.
5. Select a formatting style from the drop-down menu. In our example, we'll choose Green
Fill with Dark Green Text, then click OK.
6. The conditional formatting will be applied to the selected cells. In our example, it's easy to
see which salespeople reached the $4000 sales goal for each month.
You can apply multiple conditional formatting rules to a cell range or worksheet, allowing you to
visualize different trends and patterns in your data.
To remove conditional formatting:
1. Click the Conditional Formatting command. A drop-down menu will appear.
2. Hover the mouse over Clear Rules, and choose which rules you want to clear. In our
example, we'll select Clear Rules from Entire Sheet to remove all conditional formatting
from the worksheet.
Excel has several predefined styles—or presets—you can use to quickly apply conditional formatting to
your data. They are grouped into three categories:
Data Bars are horizontal bars added to each cell, much like a bar graph.
Color Scales change the color of each cell based on its value. Each color scale uses a two-
or three-color gradient. For example, in the Green - Yellow - Red color scale,
the highest values are green, the average values are yellow, and the lowest values are
red.
Icon Sets add a specific icon to each cell based on its value.