Spreadsheets usually hold a wealth of information, but it can be difficult to see what’s important in them, such as key data points and trends. There are several ways to make data stand out visually in an Excel spreadsheet, but one of the simplest and most effective is to apply conditional formatting.
What is conditional formatting in Excel?
Conditional formatting is a feature used to make unique, important, or duplicate values stand out or to emphasize trends in a data set. As the name suggests, the feature allows you to format the cells and their data based on conditions you specify, which makes important information easy to see at a glance.
Some common examples:
Formatting cells that meet specific criteria with a highlight color and/or font
Applying different colors to different cells based on their values
Applying color scales or gradients to visually represent cells’ values
Crucially, conditional formatting is dynamic, so it keeps up when your data set changes. For instance, if you create a conditional formatting rule that highlights cells with values over 100, and one of the cells in your set changes from 95 to 102, that cell will become highlighted.
In this article we’ll show you different ways to apply conditional formatting to your data sets. When using conditional formatting, the first option you have is to use preset conditions — formatting options that are built into Excel. We’ll go over some of the best preset conditions for formatting, and then cover how to create your own custom formatting rules.
Shimon Brathwaite / IDG
Excel offers several built-in conditional formatting rules you can apply to your data. (Click image to enlarge it.)
We’ll demonstrate using Excel for Windows under a Microsoft 365 subscription. If you’re using a different version of Excel, you might not have the same interface and options, but the features should work more or less the same way.
Before we begin: How to clear conditional formatting
Throughout this story, we’ll use the same example data set, applying one type of formatting, then clearing it away before applying the next type of formatting. So before we begin, we’ll quickly go over how to clear conditional formatting from a data set.
Simply navigate to the Excel Ribbon’s Home tab. Click the Conditional Formatting button and then select Clear Rules. There you can opt to clear conditional formatting from the selected cells, the entire worksheet, the current table, or the current PivotTable.
Shimon Brathwaite / IDG
It’s easy to remove conditional formatting rules.
How to use highlight cells rules
With that out of the way, we’re going to begin with highlight cells rules. These can be found on the Home tab under Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cells Rules.
Shimon Brathwaite / IDG
The highlight cells rules options.
Here you can see multiple options for highlighting cells based on their values, including greater or less than a certain value, equal…
2023-08-16 14:48:03
Original from www.computerworld.com