Comments on: Two ways to change background color in Excel based on cell value

In this article, you will find two quick ways to change the background color of cells based on value in Excel 2016, 2013, and 2010. Also, you will learn how to use Excel formulas to change the color of blank cells or cells with formula errors. Continue reading →

Comments page 11. Total comments: 426

  1. Hi Svetlana,

    I have requirement where in i want to color the cell automatically when i have added some value to other cell. how can i do that?
    like i want to color column X automatically when i will add some value to column Z.

  2. Hi Svetlana,

    I have requirement where in i want to color the cell automatically when i have added some value to other cell. how can i do that?
    like i want to color column X automatically when i will add some value to column Z

  3. Hi Svetlana,
    Thanks for all this info.
    I would like to change the colour of an entire row not just a cell, based on contents of a cell in that row. ie if the specified cell contains a specific word, the entire rows fill can be changed.
    Thanks
    Walter

  4. Can you please attached a filee as reference because i can not follow up with all the comments?

  5. Hi
    I am completely lost when it come to VBA and I need help.
    I have a folder where I save a lot of reports with the same excel format and then I have a master file where I copy and paste all the data from all the folders in. So I have tried a lot of things but cant get the master file to automatically copy the data from all the workbooks.I think where it becomes complex is the workbooks have drop down lists and some color formats in as well in some columns. So what I would like to do is the master file copy all data and past special from the other workbooks and if possible delete them after closing. Please I need help.

  6. Hi Svetlana,
    This is very useful

    I have one question,How to change the entire column color based on one cell value? eg if i have a text sunday in a cell, the entire column should be displayed in different color

    1. Hi Hari,

      You can select all the columns you want to highlight and create a rule with the following formula:

      =countif(A:A,"Sunday")>0

      Where A is the left-most column.

  7. Its very use full for me

    thank you

  8. OK Thanks a lot and for your time.
    I did google a lot but did not get any clue. You made it clear :)
    Thanks dear!
    Regards
    AMK

  9. Hi Svetlana,

    Is it possible to change color of cell by using formula alone and not using any conditional formatting.

    Regards
    AMK

    1. Hi!

      Nope, formulas can perform various calculations and insert values based on the conditions you specify. To change cells' color you need either conditional formatting or VBA.

  10. Thanks so much...

  11. Hi Great help,

    Just one thing how do I get five category and five colours the conditional formatting is only offering 3 .

  12. Hi Svetlana,

    IS this possible also to put some error message in the cell or in some other cell based upon conditional formatting. let say If cell of column A in a row has value less than 10 then cell of Column B will be highlighted as well as we need to put message that "column A is < 10" either in the same B cell or in different column cell in the same row?

    1. Hi Swapnik,

      You can display a message by entering an IF formula in cell B1 and then copying it down to other cells:
      =IF(A1<10, "column A is < 10", "")

  13. thank you

    It's very easy to know

  14. Hi

    I am fully impressed. it's very useful to me thank u very much for simple logic's

  15. Hi Svetlana,

    I have a workbook with multiple sheets of training events. Each sheet of of events makes up a job. All events must be current in order to be qualified for the job. I have conditional formatting set up now to have the training date entered in a cell be green if over 30 days from expiring, yellow if within 30 days and red if past do. I have a master sheet at the beginning of the workbook with a list of all of the employees. I want to list all of our jobs next to their names and have a cell for each job turn red if any of the date values from any of the job sheets turns red indicating something in their jobs qualifications is past do. Is this possible?

  16. Thank you so much..really i got the solution

  17. what is the formula if the condition are
    if the report delivered after 13 of every month than the cell shown red color.can u send me photo like a screen shot

    Thanks

    Best Regards

    Inam ul haq

  18. Typo in the above:

    I need to know "IF" a maximum of 3 has been....

    1. Hi Kristen,

      Assuming that the values you want to highlight are in column A and row 2 is your 1st row with data (not including column headers), you can use the following formulas:

      Highlight the 2nd occurrence: =COUNTIF($A$2:$A2,$A2)=2

      Highlight the 3rd and all subsequent occurrences: =COUNTIF($A$2:$A2,$A2)>=3

  19. Hello Svetlana,

    I was wondering if it is possible to get cells in a column to change colour based on whether a word occurs 2 or 3 times in that column. For example, I need to know is a maximum of 3 has been reached (typed into the workbook) so if any word occurs 2 times anywhere in the column I would like it to turn yellow, and if that same word occurs 3 times I would like it to turn red so that I know this item is exhausted. Is this possible?

    Ex. If a given suburb, say "Sydney", has been entered by my sales reps into a column on a shared workbook 3 times I would like to to turn red so that I know it is completed, and if it has been entered 2 times I would like it to turn yellow so that I know it is almost completed.... complicated I know!

  20. Hi Svetlana,

    I noticed that you are a genius in excel and very helpful to others. I was wondering if you could help me out.
    I have a table of numbers and need to fill each cell with a color based on if the previous number increased or decreased. So if 250 (A1) gets changed to 254 (A1), I want to fill in that cell with green because it increased. BUT if that same cell, A1 (254) gets changed to 253, I want the cell to fill in with red because of the decrease.
    I am wondering if this is possible to format for each cell.

    Thank you in advance,
    Tommy

    1. Hi Tommy,

      I regret to tell you that it is not possible. Excel conditional formatting formulas can compare a value in a given cell with some other number, or a value in another cell, or a value returned by some other function. But it cannot respond to a value change in the same cell.

      1. Ok, thank you for responding so fast! Is there any other way to fill in the cell based on an increase or decrease, that wouldn't have to be applied every day?

  21. Dear Svetlana,

    Congratulate for your blog, I am fully impressed.
    I tried to find an answer and maybe you already had this question - if yes, sorry.

    My question is: I have an excel sheet where costumers populate entries time by time based on general rules, so the entry is fixed. I have a mapping table about 20 countries. I would like to colour only these countries on my main sheet with conditional formatting or a rule-set but without an additional column where I use vlookup. I can set up 20 different rules with conditional formatting, but maybe you have a more professional idea as well.

    Many thanks for your kind help in advance, Kate

    1. Hi Kate,

      This task is far from trivial :)

      You can try creating a rule with the following formula:
      =NOT(ISERROR(MATCH(A2,Sheet2!$A$2:$A$20,0)))

      Where A2 is the first cell with data in your main table and A2:A20 is the list of countries in the mapping table.

      1. Dear Svetlana,

        You are a genius, it works!!! Thank you very much!

        Kate

  22. What a wonderfully helpful post, and active for so long!

    Now, I have a question. I have a formula to calculate dates out: =WORKDAY(B1+(5-1),1,holidays) So, it will only return weekday results that don't fall on my defined holidays. Is there any way to make it so that when a date is "pushed forward" to a non-holiday weekday, that the cell would change color so you could see at a glance that the date had been pushed forward in that manner?

    Thanks!

  23. Hi Svetlana,

    It is really helpful, Thank you

  24. dear Svetlana,

    i have a question and hopefully you can help me. i have a file in which we have a consequence of numbers in range of 50 (...01-...50; ...51-..100 etc). please find example of how they look below.
    140247951
    140247952
    140247953
    140247954
    140247955
    140247956
    140247957
    140247958
    140247959
    140247960
    140247961
    140247962
    140247963
    140247964
    140247965
    140247966
    140247967
    140247968
    140247969
    140247970

    is it possible to use condition formating to higlight let say 140247970 when i search it through find box (CTRL+F). these are barcodes that we have generated and we want to track them when they have been returned to me.
    hopefully you can help me as i am not very good in these kind of formating.

    thanks in advance :)

  25. thank you its help me....

  26. how do i create a formula where
    if cell B1 = letter z or Z , and no other letter (remove blanks, then change cell color to green

  27. Hi Svetlana,

    I want to know wheather top three selection, or bottom three selections can be displayedin three different colors of our choice

    Thanking you

  28. Hi Svetlana, you have many satisfied customers! I read the couple of hundred posts in your forums and did not quite see the issue I am having. I receive a weekly report and I need to compare 5 columns of data in this week's report vs. the same 5 columns in the prior week's report, and identify if any changes occurred in each row for 900 rows. I use a formula (below) where Column A looks at Column F, Column B looks at Column G, Column C looks at Column H, Column D looks at Column I, and Column E looks at Column J, for any changes (text or number). I put the formula in cell K2 and copy it down to K900. The formula in Column K tells me that some data has changed in the row if there was any change, but I have to visually look at all 10 columns in the row to see what cell(s) data changed. Is there a way to color the cells where the data has changed? Here is the formula I use to identify changes:
    =IF(SUMPRODUCT((A2:A900=F2)*(B2:B900=G2)*(C2:C900=H2)*(D2:D900=I2)*(E2:E900=J2))>0,"","Changed")

    I hope you can help! Thanks

    1. Hello George,

      Thanks for the detailed description.
      If you simply need to compare 5 columns in one row, just select A2:E900 or F2:J900 (according to the part of the table you want to color) and create a conditional formatting rule using this formula:
      =A2<>F2

      If the group of 5 cells may be in different rows, then please send your sample workbook to support@ablebits.com. We will try to find the solution.

      1. Hi Alexander,
        I actually need to compare 10 columns in one row. I tried the formula you mentioned and variations of it using yellow shading but all it did was shade all the cells yellow. I will send a sample workbook to the email address you provided along with additional clarification of what I need. Thanks.

  29. Thank You so much we solve over problem, before we don't know how to change background color..

    Thank You so Much...

  30. Hi,

    I need help in highlighting multiple cells till a certain value is reached:
    Ex.

    stock demands w01 demands w02 demands w03 demands w04
    3000 500 1000 1200 1000

    I need that Excels highlight first 3 postions because their sum is less than the stock.

    Would someone help me pls?
    Thanks

  31. Hi,

    I am creating a spreadsheet and would like to have three collums with dates that change the color of each row.

    colloum A - turns X color when a date is entered.
    COlloum B - Turns X color when a date is entered.
    Colloum C - Turns X color when a date is entered.

    I would like a check mark to apear in a fourth colloum when the row has three dates entered, and a X when one or two dates are entered.

    Thank you.

    1. Hi Aaron,

      You can create a rule for each column in this way: Conditional Formatting > New Rule > Fromat onl cells that contain and choose "No blanks" from the left-most drop down list.

      Then, enter the following formula in the 4th column:
      =IF(AND(A2<>"", B2<>"", C2<>""), 2, IF(AND(A2="", B2="", C2=""), "", 1))

      Where A, B and C are your date columns.

      Finally, create the following icon set rule for the 4th column:
      Icon sets rule

  32. Hi, I have created a worksheet that produces division of an input number by the numbers 1 to 100 in individual cells. I am trying to turn change a cell colour for cells where the product of the division is an integer. I have checked and there does not appear to be a direct way to do this with the standard formulas. Could you help please.

  33. hi,

    i wanted to change the colour of a row based on a specific value of a cell. can i do so?

  34. with an using conditional formula, cell A1 results "passed" with colour letter after putting a date in Cell D1. Please...

  35. Hi there

    I have a set of data in a table and all the numbers are different.

    I'm sending this to someone else and if they wish to manually change the number to something else I want the cell to change colour.

    Is there a way of doing this with conditional formatting?

    Thanks for your help

  36. Svetlana,

    I have a slightly different question, though very related: I would like for cell A1 in Sheet 1 to be red if it is greater than A1 in Sheet 2, and green if it is less than A1 in Sheet 2. I would also like cell B1 in Sheet 1 to change color based on B1 in Sheet 2, and so on.

    I can do this manually, using your instructions for "Format only cells that contain," but I have thousands of cells I would like to change in this way. It may be obvious that I am looking for trend changes, and normally I would use a line chart, but I want to know the exact numbers where the changes take place, and Excel charts don't seem to allow for that kind of detail.

    Thank you for any help you can give.

    Robert

    1. Svetlana,

      Nevermind, I figured it out, playing off your suggestion to question #59 (and the basic advice to use the conditional formatting button, of which I had been unaware before I found this post). I used "Use a formula to determine which cells to format," and typed in the formula:

      =A1'Sheet 2'!A1

      For the first formula I selected one color (though it looks like I could have done just about any formatting) and for the second I selected another.

      If you highlight the whole area you need to follow this formatting, and make sure not to use dollar signs on any of the cell coordinates, the formatting should appear across your whole worksheet.

      Thanks for getting me started!

      Robert

      1. It looks like I lost a few lines, including the second formula. The first one should have a "greater than" sign after the first "A1," and the second is identical to the first, except it has a "lesser than" sign:

        =A1'Sheet 1'!A1

  37. I have Repeated elements
    5347940
    5347940
    5347945
    5347945
    5348035
    5348035
    5348036
    5348036
    5348053
    in this i want to color alternate numbers

  38. thanks it has been helpfull

  39. Hi Svetlana,

    I am trying to set up a database for training records of employees,

    using your rule above is it possible to set a cell to change green, yellow or red based on the training course expiry length.

    For example Cell E13 is Green, if the date in cell F13 is 60 days away from the course expiry date set in G13 then Cell E13 turns yellow, if it passes the date then it turns red

    Any help is much appreciated

    Thanks

    Craig

    1. Hi Craig,

      Try creating a rule for cell E13 with the following formulas:

      Red: =$F13>$G13
      Yellow: =AND($G13-$F13>0, $G13-$F13<=60)
      Green: =$G13-$F13>=60

      If you need to highlight more than 1 cell in column E, select them all before creating a rule and replace "13" in the above formulas with the number of the top row in the selection.

  40. thx for help XD

  41. Thanks a lot
    it was so helpful for me

  42. Can you use this to change a cells color based on a word in the cell instead of a value?

  43. Hi,
    Is there a way to select a random cell in excel and have all the other cell with the same value highlight? So, once I select another cell, the originla highlight is lost and all the cells with values same as the new selected cell gets highlighted.
    I need this for work to make my presentation look spot on and set me apart from the rest. If you could reply back, I would very much appreciate it.
    Thank you!
    Shweta

  44. Svetlana,
    Thank you for your post. It is very useful. You seem to be an expert in excel color and I wonder if I can ask you a question about Excel color. I inherited an excel file with a pale yellow/sand color. When I check the color index, it shows -4142. When I change the color of the cell, it shows the normal color. When I set as no fill, I get this color (-4142). When I print the sheet, the color displays similarly as a no filled cell. I wonder if you know how this -4142 "color" gets set in the first place?
    Thank you in advance.

    1. Hello Tina,

      I am hesitant to give any advice without seeing the formatting. If you can send us your workbook at support@ablebits.com, we will hopefully be able to help.

  45. Thank you very much

  46. Hi Svetlana,

    I am very impressed with the creative solutions I have seen on this page.
    I am hoping you can help me with a problem I have been struggling with for months.

    I would like to copy the contents and format of a column of cells and paste them in another column using a formula.
    All columns are formatted as type = General
    Column A is a list of random IP addresses that are color formatted as green or red cells. Just say every other IP address is green and the others red.
    Column C is also a list of IP addresses (a master list) with no color.

    In column B, I want to take all the IP addresses in column A and line them up on the same row as the IP address in column C (and keep the color formatting from column A).
    In column B to get the IP address from column A to line up with the IP addresses in column C, I used the formula:
    =IF(ISNA(MATCH(C1,A:A,0)),"",INDEX(A:A,MATCH(C1,A:A,0)))
    This works but column B does not have the color formatting as the cells in column A
    Is there any way to keep that formatting when using a formula?

    Here is the data (remove column B if you want to check the formual):
    192.168.36.21 192.168.36.21 192.168.36.21
    192.168.32.31 192.168.33.174
    192.168.35.0 192.168.32.31 192.168.32.31
    192.168.37.56 192.168.40.163
    192.168.45.10 192.168.42.82
    192.168.43.221 192.168.35.0 192.168.35.0
    192.168.45.108 192.168.37.56 192.168.37.56
    192.168.46.208 192.168.38.105
    192.168.32.226 192.168.38.214
    192.168.39.208 192.168.43.224
    192.168.32.246 192.168.45.10 192.168.45.10
    192.168.35.109 192.168.43.221 192.168.43.221
    192.168.34.99 192.168.46.215
    192.168.32.55 192.168.45.108 192.168.45.108
    192.168.46.208 192.168.46.208
    192.168.32.226 192.168.32.226
    192.168.43.42
    192.168.39.208 192.168.39.208
    192.168.32.246 192.168.32.246
    192.168.34.23
    192.168.36.68
    192.168.35.109 192.168.35.109
    192.168.34.99 192.168.34.99
    192.168.32.55 192.168.32.55

    Maybe this is not the right approach and using some other way like Offset would be the way to go. Any input is welcome

    Thank You for your valuable time,
    Sven

    1. Thank you, Thomas! Much appreciated : )

  48. Hello,
    I'm trying to set up a sheet where if I enter something in A (will be a number) then B,C,D,E turns red until something is entered into each one.
    Once a value, or word is entered in each of B:E they turn back to white.
    Is this possible? It seems like trying to connect 2 formulas may be contradicting

  49. I am partially red/green colour blind and rely on the labels that appear when I use Fill on the Home ribbon (pause over a colour and the label appears). But those labels do not appear when I use Fill from the conditional formatting feature. How do I get them to appear when using conditional formatting? Also how do I get labels to appear in 'more colours'?

    1. Hello Kevin,

      I am very sorry, I don't know a way to make the labels to appear for conditional formatting colors.

  50. Hi Svetlana

    I have a range of values in Row1 - say A1 to J1
    I have another range of values in row2 - say A1 to J2.
    I am comparing A1 and A2; then B1 with B2....... then J1 to J2.
    Whenever value in row1 < row 2, the row2 cell should be changed to red color.
    This is needed to be done across the entire row 2.
    Kindly let me know the solution.

    1. Thank you Svetlana!!

    2. Hello Sridhar,

      If you have to highlight each cell in row 2 that has a value greater than the value in row 1 in the same column, then select row 2 and create a rule with this formula:
      =A2>A1

      If you have to highlight the entire row 2 if at least 1 cell in row 1 has the value less than in row 2, you need a helper cell, e.g. A5, with the following array formula (remember to press CTRL+Shift+Enter instead of Enter to complete it):
      =SUM(--(A1:J1<A2:J2))

      After that, select row 2 and create a rule with this formula:
      =$A$5>1

Post a comment



Thank you for your comment!
When posting a question, please be very clear and concise. This will help us provide a quick and relevant solution to
your query. We cannot guarantee that we will answer every question, but we'll do our best :)