by 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.
Excel conditional formatting based on another cell value
Excel's predefined conditional formatting, such as Data Bars, Color Scales and Icon Sets, are mainly purposed to format cells based on their own values. If you want to apply conditional formatting based on another cell or format an entire row based on a single cell's value, then you will need to use formulas.
So, let's see how you can make a rule using a formula and after discuss formula examples for specific tasks.
How to create a conditional formatting rule based on formula
To set up a conditional formatting rule based on a formula in any version of Excel 2010 through Excel 365, carry out these steps:
- Select the cells you want to format. You can select one column, several columns or the entire table if you want to apply your conditional format to rows.
Tip. If you plan to add more data in the future and you want the conditional formatting rule to get applied to new entries automatically, you can either:
- Convert a range of cells to a table (Insert tab > Table). In this case, the conditional formatting will be automatically applied to all new rows.
- Select some empty rows below your data, say 100 blank rows.
- On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click Conditional formatting > New Rule…
- In the New Formatting Rule window, select Use a formula to determine which cells to format.
- Enter the formula in the corresponding box.
- Click the Format… button to choose your custom format.
- Switch between the Font, Border and Fill tabs and play with different options such as font style, pattern color and fill effects to set up the format that works best for you. If the standard palette does not suffice, click More colors… and choose any RGB or HSL color to your liking. When done, click the OK button.
- Make sure the Preview section displays the format you want and if it does, click the OK button to save the rule. If you are not quite happy with the format preview, click the Format… button again and make the edits.
Tip. Whenever you need to edit a conditional formatting formula, press F2 and then move to the needed place within the formula using the arrow keys. If you try arrowing without pressing F2, a range will be inserted into the formula rather than just moving the insertion pointer. To add a certain cell reference to the formula, press F2 a second time and then click that cell.
Excel conditional formatting formula examples
Now that you know how to create and apply Excel conditional formatting based on another cell, let's move on and see how to use various Excel formulas in practice.
Tip. For your Excel conditional formatting formula to work correctly, please always follow these simple rules.
Formulas to compare values (numbers and text)
As you know Microsoft Excel provides a handful of ready-to-use rules to format cells with values greater than, less than or equal to the value you specify (Conditional Formatting >Highlight Cells Rules). However, these rules do not work if you want to conditionally format certain columns or entire rows based on a cell's value in another column. In this case, you use analogous formulas:
| Condition | Formula example |
|---|---|
| Equal to | =$B2=10 |
| Not equal to | =$B2<>10 |
| Greater than | =$B2>10 |
| Greater than or equal to | =$B2>=10 |
| Less than | =$B2<10 |
| Less than or equal to | =$B2<=10 |
| Between | =AND($B2>5, $B2<10) |
The screenshot below shows an example of the Greater than formula that highlights product names in column A if the number of items in stock (column C) is greater than 0. Please pay attention that the formula applies to column A only ($A$2:$A$8). But if you select the whole table (in our case, $A$2:$E$8), this will highlight entire rows based on the value in column C.
In a similar fashion, you can create a conditional formatting rule to compare values of two cells. For example:
=$A2<$B2 - format cells or rows if a value in column A is less than the corresponding value in column B.
=$A2=$B2 - format cells or rows if values in columns A and B are the same.
=$A2<>$B2 - format cells or rows if a value in column A is not the same as in column B.
As you can see in the screenshot below, these formulas work for text values as well as for numbers.
AND and OR formulas
If you want to format your Excel table based on 2 or more conditions, then use either =AND or =OR function:
| Condition | Formula | Description |
|---|---|---|
| If both conditions are met | =AND($B2<$C2, $C2<$D2) |
Formats cells if the value in column B is less than in column C, and if the value in column C is less than in column D. |
| If one of the conditions is met | =OR($B2<$C2, $C2<$D2) |
Formats cells if the value in column B is less than in column C, or if the value in column C is less than in column D. |
In the screenshot below, we use the formula =AND($C2>0, $D2="Worldwide") to change the background color of rows if the number of items in stock (Column C) is greater than 0 and if the product ships worldwide (Column D). Please pay attention that the formula works with text values as well as with numbers.
Naturally, you can use two, three or more conditions in your AND and OR formulas. To see how this works in practice, watch Video: Conditional formatting based on another cell.
These are the basic conditional formatting formulas you use in Excel. Now let's consider a bit more complex but far more interesting examples.
Conditional formatting for empty and non-empty cells
I think everyone knows how to format empty and not empty cells in Excel - you simply create a new rule of the "Format only cells that contain" type and choose either Blanks or No Blanks.
But what if you want to format cells in a certain column if a corresponding cell in another column is empty or not empty? In this case, you will need to utilize Excel formulas again:
Formula for blanks: =$B2="" - format selected cells / rows if a corresponding cell in Column B is blank.
Formula for non-blanks: =$B2<>"" - format selected cells / rows if a corresponding cell in Column B is not blank.
Note. The formulas above will work for cells that are "visually" empty or not empty. If you use some Excel function that returns an empty string, e.g. =if(false,"OK", ""), and you don't want such cells to be treated as blanks, use the following formulas instead =isblank(A1)=true or =isblank(A1)=false to format blank and non-blank cells, respectively.
And here is an example of how you can use the above formulas in practice. Suppose, you have a column (B) which is "Date of Sale" and another column (C) "Delivery". These 2 columns have a value only if a sale has been made and the item delivered. So, you want the entire row to turn orange when you've made a sale; and when an item is delivered, a corresponding row should turn green. To achieve this, you need to create 2 conditional formatting rules with the following formulas:
- Orange rows (a cell in column B is not empty):
=$B2<>"" - Green rows (cells in column B and column C are not empty):
=AND($B2<>"", $C2<>"")
One more thing for you to do is to move the second rule to the top and select the Stop if true check box next to this rule:
In this particular case, the "Stop if true" option is actually superfluous, and the rule will work with or without it. You may want to check this box just as an extra precaution, in case you add a few other rules in the future that may conflict with any of the existing ones.
For more information, please see Excel conditional formatting for blank cells.
Excel formulas to work with text values
If you want to format a certain column(s) when another cell in the same row contains a certain word, you can use a formula discussed in one of the previous examples (like =$D2="Worldwide"). However, this will only work for exact match.
For partial match, you will need to use either SEARCH (case insensitive) or FIND (case sensitive).
For example, to format selected cells or rows if a corresponding cell in column D contains the word "Worldwide", use the below formula. This formula will find all such cells, regardless of where the specified text is located in a cell, including "Ships Worldwide", "Worldwide, except for…", etc:
=SEARCH("Worldwide", $D2)>0
If you'd like to shade selected cells or rows if the cell's content starts with the search text, use this one:
=SEARCH("Worldwide", $D2)>1
Excel formulas to highlight duplicates
If your task is to conditionally format cells with duplicate values, you can go with the pre-defined rule available under Conditional formatting > Highlight Cells Rules > Duplicate Values… The following article provides a detailed guidance on how to use this feature: How to automatically highlight duplicates in Excel.
However, in some cases the data looks better if you color selected columns or entire rows when a duplicate values occurs in another column. In this case, you will need to employ an Excel conditional formatting formula again, and this time we will be using the COUNTIF formula. As you know, this Excel function counts the number of cells within a specified range that meet a single criterion.
Highlight duplicates including 1st occurrences
=COUNTIF($A$2:$A$10,$A2)>1 - this formula finds duplicate values in the specified range in Column A (A2:A10 in our case), including first occurrences.
If you choose to apply the rule to the entire table, the whole rows will get formatted, as you see in the screenshot below. I've decided to change a font color in this rule, just for a change : )
Highlight duplicates without 1st occurrences
To ignore the first occurrence and highlight only subsequent duplicate values, use this formula: =COUNTIF($A$2:$A2,$A2)>1
Highlight consecutive duplicates in Excel
If you'd rather highlight only duplicates on consecutive rows, you can do this in the following way. This method works for any data types: numbers, text values and dates.
- Select the column where you want to highlight duplicates, without the column header.
- Create a conditional formatting rule(s) using these simple formulas:
Rule 1 (blue):=$A1=$A2- highlights the 2nd occurrence and all subsequent occurrences, if any.
Rule 2 (green):=$A2=$A3- highlights the 1st occurrence.
In the above formulas, A is the column you want to check for dupes, $A1 is the column header, $A2 is the first cell with data.
Important! For the formulas to work correctly, it is essential that Rule 1, which highlights the 2nd and all subsequent duplicate occurrences, should be the first rule in the list, especially if you are using two different colors.
Highlight duplicate rows
If you want apply the conditional format when duplicate values occur in two or more columns, you will need to add an extra column to your table in which you concatenate the values from the key columns using a simple formula like this one =A2&B2. After that you apply a rule using either variation of the COUNTIF formula for duplicates (with or without 1st occurrences). Naturally, you can hide an additional column after creating the rule.
Alternatively, you can use the COUNTIFS function that supports multiple criteria in a single formula. In this case, you won't need a helper column.
In this example, to highlight duplicate rows with 1st occurrences, create a rule with the following formula:
=COUNTIFS($A$2:$A$11, $A2, $B$2:$B$11, $B2)>1
To highlight duplicate rows without 1st occurrences, use this formula:
=COUNTIFS($A$2:$A2, $A2, $B$2:$B2, $B2)>1
Compare 2 columns for duplicates
One of the most frequent tasks in Excel is to check 2 columns for duplicate values - i.e. find and highlight values that exist in both columns. To do this, you will need to create an Excel conditional formatting rule for each column with a combination of =ISERROR() and =MATCH() functions:
For Column A: =ISERROR(MATCH(A1,$B$1:$B$10000,0))=FALSE
For Column B: =ISERROR(MATCH(B1,$A$1:$A$10000,0))=FALSE
Note. For such conditional formulas to work correctly, it's very important that you apply the rules to the entire columns, e.g. =$A:$A and =$B:$B.
You can see an example of practical usage in the following screenshot that highlights duplicates in Columns E and F.
As you can see, Excel conditional formatting formulas cope with dupes pretty well. However, for more complex cases, I would recommend using the Duplicate Remover add-in that is especially designed to find, highlight and remove duplicates in Excel, in one sheet or between two spreadsheets.
Formulas to highlight values above or below average
When you work with several sets of numeric data, the AVERAGE() function may come in handy to format cells whose values are below or above the average in a column.
For example, you can use the formula =$E2<AVERAGE($E$2:$E$8) to conditionally format the rows where the sale numbers are below the average, as shown in the screenshot below. If you are looking for the opposite, i.e. to shade the products performing above the average, replace "<" with ">" in the formula: =$E2>AVERAGE($E$2:$E$8).
How to highlight the nearest value in Excel
If I have a set of numbers, is there a way I can use Excel conditional formatting to highlight the number in that set that is closest to zero? This is what one of our blog readers, Jessica, wanted to know. The question is very clear and straightforward, but the answer is a bit too long for the comments sections, that's why you see a solution here :)
Example 1. Find the nearest value, including exact match
In our example, we'll find and highlight the number that is closest to zero. If the data set contains one or more zeroes, all of them will be highlighted. If there is no 0, then the value closest to it, either positive or negative, will be highlighted.
First off, you need to enter the following formula to any empty cell in your worksheet, you will be able to hide that cell later, if needed. The formula finds the number in a given range that is closest to the number you specify and returns the absolute value of that number (absolute value is the number without its sign):
=MIN(ABS(B2:D13-(0)))
In the above formula, B2:D13 is your range of cells and 0 is the number for which you want to find the closest match. For example, if you are looking for a value closest to 5, the formula will change to: =MIN(ABS(B2:D13-(5)))
Note. This is an array formula, so you need to press Ctrl + Shift + Enter instead of a simple Enter stroke to complete it.
And now, you create a conditional formatting rule with the following formula, where B3 is the top-right cell in your range and $C$2 in the cell with the above array formula:
=OR(B3=0-$C$2,B3=0+$C$2)
Please pay attention to the use of absolute references in the address of the cell containing the array formula ($C$2), because this cell is constant. Also, you need to replace 0 with the number for which you want to highlight the closest match. For example, if we wanted to highlight the value nearest to 5, the formula would change to: =OR(B3=5-$C$2,B3=5+$C$2)
Example 2. Highlight a value closest to the given value, but NOT exact match
In case you do not want to highlight the exact match, you need a different array formula that will find the closest value but ignore the exact match.
For example, the following array formula finds the value closest to 0 in the specified range, but ignores zeroes, if any:
=MIN(ABS(B3:C13-(0))+(10^0*(B3:C13=0)))
Please remember to press Ctrl + Shift + Enter after you finished typing your array formula.
The conditional formatting formula is the same as in the above example:
=OR(B3=0-$C$2,B3=0+$C$2)
However, since our array formula in cell C2 ignores the exact match, the conditional formatting rule ignores zeroes too and highlights the value 0.003 that is the closest match.
If you want to find the value nearest to some other number in your Excel sheet, just replace "0" with the number you want both in the array and conditional formatting formulas.
I hope the conditional formatting formulas you have learned in this tutorial will help you make sense of whatever project you are working on. If you need more examples, please check out the following articles:
Why isn't my Excel conditional formatting working correctly?
If your conditional formatting rule is not working as expected, though the formula is apparently correct, do not get upset! Most likely it is not because of some weird bug in Excel conditional formatting, rather due to a tiny mistake, not evident at the first sight. Please try out 6 simple troubleshooting steps below and I'm sure you will get your formula to work:
- Use absolute & relative cell addresses correctly. It's very difficult to deduce a general rule that will work in 100 per cent of cases. But most often you would use an absolute column (with $) and relative row (without $) in your cell references, e.g.
=$A1>1.Please keep in mind that the formulas
=A1=1,=$A$1=1and=A$1=1will produce different results. If you are not sure which one is correct in your case, you can try all : ) For more information, please see Relative and absolute cell references in Excel conditional formatting. - Verify the applied range. Check whether your conditional formatting rule applies to the correct range of cells. A rule of thumb is this - select all the cells / rows you want to format but do not include column headers.
- Write the formula for the top-left cell. In conditional formatting rules, cell references are relative to the top-left most cell in the applied range. So, always write your conditional formatting formula for the 1st row with data.
For example, if your data starts in row 2, you put
=A$2=10to highlight cells with values equal to 10 in all the rows. A common mistake is to always use a reference to the first row (e.g.=A$1=10). Please remember, you reference row 1 in the formula only if your table does not have headers and your data really starts in row 1. The most obvious indication of this case is when the rule is working, but formats values not in the rows it should. - Check the rule you created. Double-check the rule in the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager. Sometimes, for no reason at all, Microsoft Excel distorts the rule you have just created. So, if the rule is not working, go to Conditional Formatting > Manage Rules and check both the formula and the range it applies to. If you have copied the formula from the web or some other external source, make sure the straight quotes are used.
- Adjust cell references when copying the rule. If you copy Excel conditional formatting using Format Painter, don't forget to adjust all cell references in the formula.
- Split complex formulas into simple elements. If you use a complex Excel formula that includes several different functions, split it into simple elements and verify each function individually.
And finally, if you've tried all the steps but your conditional formatting rule is still not working correctly, drop me a line in comments and we will try to fathom it out together :)
In my next article we are going to look into the capabilities of Excel conditional formatting for dates. See you next week and thanks for reading!
1701 comments
Hello I am working on a retirement planning spreadsheet. I have keyed in a started working age, and a retirement age of 67. I need help in creating a formula that stops the series at age 67. For example, If I key in age 26, in my table, my series goes to age 71 bc I orginally formatted the table to have a basic start age of 22. I would like to be able to create formula that stops the series at age 67 regardless of the age you start working.
Hi James,
Try nesting your current formula inside the IF function in this way:
=IF(A2<=67, YOURFORMULA, "")
Where A is the collumn with the current age, e.g. 22. Then А46 will have "68" and at this point the formula stops the series.
If the above approach does not work, please send us your sample workbook with the existing formula at support@ablebits.com, and we will try to figure this out.
Hi
I have a case.If i type a text "IN" in cell A1, the next cell B1 should be blank.No other values could not be typed in that cell.in same way if a description is already in cell B1 and if I type text "IN" in cell A1 it should get automatically deleted.Pls help me out.
Hi David,
If column B already has any values, I think conditional formatting won't work. This task requires a macro and you can try to find an example on some Excel-targeted forums like mrexcel.com or excelforum.com. I am sorry for not being able to help you.
Hi Iam trying to enter a formula that returns the following
In cells in Column J I will be entering employee names against locations in Column K, I then need Column M to return programmed and the whole row to be highlighted in Green,
However if Column J returns RBS I need column M to return programmed but the row to be highlighted blue
Hi Simon,
I am sorry, I do not understand what "to return programmed" means and what RBS is. Can you please clarify?
Hi
What I would like to achieve is:-
I have 15 employees who work in different teams, I would like to set up a formula that when I type the employees name (ie C Reed) into cell K2 cell N2 is populated with the word Programmed and the entire row is highlighted in green, but if I typed RBS into cell K2 Cell N2 is still popultaed with Programmed but the row is highlighted in blue.
Thanks for helping
Hi Simon,
Thanks for the clarifications. Then you can try creating 2 rules with the following formulas:
Blue: =AND($K2="RBS",$N2="Programmed") This rule should be the first in the list, with the option "Stop if true" checked.
Green: =AND($K2<>"",$N2="Programmed")
Hi Sorry
I dont think I made it clear that if I typed RBS or my employees name in to cell K2 I would like the word Programmed to automaticaly appear in Cel N2 and the row to either highlight Blue if Cell K2 contained RBS or Green if an employees name is typed into cell K2
Thanks for your help
Hi Simon,
Just enter the below formula to cell N2, and then copy it across the entire column:
=if(K2<>"","Programmed","")
This formula will enter the word "Programmed" in column N once you type an employee name in column K in the same row.
And then, you can create the conditional formatting rules with the formulas I suggested earlier to color the cells in the way you want.
I tried using this formula but then after it satisfies the first input value it will not do numeric series when inputing the next value
=IF(ROW(A1)<=$D$7, ROW(A1), "")
Hello!
And what values do you have in other cells of column D and why do you compare with A1? If you can send us a sample workbook at support@ablebits.com, it would be much easier for us to suggest a proper formula.
Hello, I want to create a numeric series starting with 1 based on the value entered in a column.
For example:
In column d, row 7, the value entered is 3, then column e, will automatically enter number 1, 2, 3 to rows 7-9.
Then if I enter another value on column d, row 10 say for example 2, then column e will automatically enter 1 and to to rows 10 and 11.
Please help
I am creating a scheduling template for a staff of hundreds of employees. I need to make sure I do not schedule an employee wore than 5 days in a given week. How can I highlight cells if a specific name occurs in a block of cells, say b7 - h15, more than 5 times?
Hi Brian,
Try creating a rule with this formula:
=COUNTIF($A$2:$A$20,A2)>5
Where A is the column containing the employees names and A2 is the first cell in a block with a given name. Please pay attention to the use of absolute and relative cell references.
=COUNTIF($B$7:$H$15,B7) >5
figured it out.
OK, here is a step further. Is there a way to highlight cells based off the same block of cells over multiple tabs. I tried "=COUNTIF('Batch Review:Rotary Opener'!$B$9:$H$28,B9)=1" and received and error saying that I could not use this reference in conditional formatting.
Hi Brian,
Conditional formatting rules require a more traditional formula format : ) Try out this one:
=(COUNTIF('Batch Review'!$B$9:$H$28,B9) + COUNTIF('Another sheet'!$B$9:$H$28,B9) + COUNTIF('Rotary Opener'!$B$9:$H$28,B9) ) = 1
Hi,
Please help
I have 2 sheets. I have a list of items on 1st sheet, it has item code (A1) next to it is description (B2) and so on.
I am making sheet 2 with description only (populated from quickbooks). How do I make a formula to add the item code corresponding to its description on a cell next to it.
Not all items are in the 2 sheet and they are in different order compared to the 1st sheet
Thanks in advance
Hello Eric,
You can do this using a VLOOKUP formula similar to this:
=VLOOKUP($A2,Sheet1!B2:C20,2)
Where A is the column with descriptions in your Sheet2, B is the column with descriptions in Sheet1, and C is the item codes column in Sheet1. Please note that the VLOOKUP function cannot search on its left, therefore the Descriptions column (in Sheet1) should the the left-most column in your lookup range.
Please see the following tutorial for more info:
Excel VLOOKUP tutorial for beginners - syntax and formula examples
Advanced VLOOKUP formula examples
Hello,
I have been working on a pivot table for receiving of parts for a specific product. Different parts for the product are received from different vendors. I am creating a file that will take raw data from sheet 2 and easily show and format the cells for each grouping of products when all the parts have been received.
For example, product 1 is listed 10 times in column A because it has 10 parts to it before it can be built. Column C shows if the part for the product has been received. What I would like to have done is once the report I paste into sheet 2 shows that all parts have been received for product 1 in column C, to then highlight the name "Product 1" in column A in green. I would also like this to repeat automatically for every other product in column A when all parts in column C are showing received.
Thanks for any help!
Hi Josh,
It looks like this can be done, but we need to see the structure of your data to be able to say with certainty and suggest a proper formula. If you send me your sample workbook at support@ablebits.com, we will try to help.
Thank you, Svetlana.
Very useful, although if you know a way I can run this without having to create an additional column that would be even more awesome! :)
Pri
Sorry Pri, I don't know such a way :( I can only suggest hiding that additional column.
Hi Svetlana
Hope you can help. Would you know how I can apply conditional formatting to a table where the row colours alternate as the column value (text) changes?
For example: the column values are car, house, bird, table, anything else, and when the value changes, the row colour changes (2 colour choices). I can't apply a colour to each value as they are not all known. I just want two colours to alternate as the value changes so it's easy to spot the change.
Thanks in advance.
Pri
Hi Pri,
I believe this is the formula you need - How to alternate row colors based on a value change.
I hope this is not a "too late" comment: you can apply a new rule to the same range. The only condition is that you do not apply the same format for different values. Now: if you do not know what are the values (as they will be appearing appear in your table) you can have a list of new values and mark in your table any new item (not contained in your list) with a special color or mark. You can use a formula from LOOKUP or similar do detect if your table has or not the "new value" in your master list...
Hi,
I have a workbook where I have work order numbers in column a and start dates in column f, in another sheet I have work order numbers in column d and start dates in column h. I need to be able to highlight a row if I have 2 different dates for the same work order number - Thank you so much
Hi!
Simply select the table where you want to highlight rows (without column headers), let's say in your sheet 1, and create a rule with this formula:
=$F2<>Sheet2!$H2
Where F2 is the top-left cell with dates in sheet 1, H2 - the top-left cell with dates in sheet 2, and Sheet2 - the 2nd sheet's name.
Hi - this is a very useful site! I need to format cell C5 to say 'YES' if cell B5 is greater than 100, and for C5 to say 'NO' if it is less than 100. I am sure that this is very simple but I can't work it out! All conditional formatting seems to be to colour a cell or text, but not to put a work in a cell… Thank you :)
Hi Lisa,
You are right, this is simple, and conditional formatting is not needed :)
Just enter the following formula into cell C5:
=IF(B5>100,"YES","NO")
Thank you so much! Now that makes sense! I have come across this before but must have completely forgot. Thanks again :)
Hi
I need to highlight any cells that contain an absolute value rather than a formula i.e. the formula has been overtyped with a value. Is this possible with conditional formatting?
Hi Chris,
If you use Excel 2013, you can create a conditional formatting rule with the below formula (where A2 is the top-left cell of your range):
=ISFORMULA(A2)=FALSE
If you use Excel 2010 or lower, you will have to add User Defined Function (VBA code) to your workbook because ISFORMULA was introduced in Excel 2013 only. Here is the function:
Function IsFormula2010(ByVal cell As Range)
IsFormula2010 = cell.HasFormula
End Function
If you do not have much experience with VBA, these step-by-step instructions will be helpful.
After the above code is added, you can create a condition formatting rule with the same formula:
=ISFORMULA(A2)=FALSE
Hi Svetlana,
I feel I'm really close to receiving an answer in this article. If you see "Compare 2 Columns for Duplicates", it doesn't have an explanation as to how I can have excel put these matching cells on the same row (your picture is a great example of my problem). I need them to be on the same row because I have data attached to the duplicates that changes monthly (however, the name remains the same). Do you know how I can have the rows match up?
Thanks in advance for your assistance!
Hi Harrison,
I believe this can be done using Excel's VLOOKUP function or our Merge Tables add-in. If I can have a look at your data, I think I will be able to suggest the right formula. So, feel free to send me your sample workbook at support@ablebits.com.
Hi
I have a roster schedule that uses conditional formatting for each day based on where the employee is (OT/ AL/ Work/ Off tour etc) What I would like to do is highlight the entire column of what day it is today.
Ie column HE is today's date (29 July) I would like the entire column (which has other conditional formatting values and then blank cells) to be a certain colour so it is easier to navigate back to what day it is.
I have the 'TODAY' date formula in cell A1.
Have tried various ways and can get the single cell (HE) to highlight, but not the entire column.
Thanks for any help
Hi Sarah,
I think you can handle it in this way:
- Select the entire table without column headers and create a rule with either formula:
=A$3=TODAY() or =A$3=$A$1
Where A is the first (left-most) column of the table and 3 is the row with dates (table headers).
Depending on what you are trying to achieve, this rule should be either the 1st or the last in the list of conditional formatting rules.
If it is the 1st, the column will change the color but individual cells might get colored in different ways based on your other rules. If it is the last, the entire column will change the color overriding all other rules.
OH THANK YOU Soooo much! First formula worked a treat.
Afternoon
I am trying to get a cell A2 to fill green if cell B2 says Approved or fill amber if cell B2 says Pending. Cell B2 will always start at Pending and then will be overtyped with Approved as and when, and would like cell A2 to update itself based on this change. I have tried a number of ways, but can only seem to get the formatting to change for one or the other not both. I'm sure I have used conditional formatting for something like this before. Is there anything you can suggest?
Thanks :-)
Hi Alison,
You simply have to create 2 rules with different colors for column A:
Green: =$B2=”Approved”
Amber: =$B2=”Pending”
Did it work?
DEAR SIR/MEM
WHEN I SELECT ROW AND COLUMN ITS NOW SHOWING IN NORMAL BLUE COLOR
..I WANT TOSAY THAT WHEN I DRAG A CELL ITS NOW SHOWING THAT I M SELECTING
HOW CAN I SOLVE IT PLZ REPLAY WITH ANS..
UR FAITH FULLY USER
CHANDRESH VAVADIYA
Hello CHANDRESH,
I am very sorry, but I do not understand your question. Anyway, I believe the issue does not relate to Excel conditional formatting.
I have a problem in excel format date is in one sheet and my condition
=if(mid(sheet!y6,11,5)='F316L','XXXXXXXX',YYYYYYY)
THIS IS WORKING OK WHEN THE DATA IS F316L BUT WHEN DATA IS ' 12 '
VSD
Reply
Hi SHARADA,
Sorry, I am not sure I understand your formula. Why are 'XXXXXXXX' encapsulated in apostrophes while YYYYYYY aren't? And what is '12' VSD? I think it will be easier for me to understand if you can provide a sample of your data.
Hello,
I tried to send my sample workbook but I keep getting an error!
It says: "The error that the other server returned was:
550 5.1.1 : Recipient address rejected: User unknown in virtual alias table"
Please help!
Thanks!
Sorry, Carl, this is my fault - there was a misprint in the address. Don't know how that could happen, I typed it hundreds of times... Here is the correct one (double checked : ) - support@ablebits.com
Hi, first thanks for your great blog!
I am trying to get the cells on column A to change to green when F, G and H contains "Done" or "N/A". I has tried a couple of different formulas but no luck.
It should be something like:
=AND((OR($F$3="Done");($F$3="N/A"));(OR($G$3="Done");($G$3="N/A"));(OR($H$3="Done");($H$3="N/A")))
If you find some time, can you guide me to the right solution please?
I found a working solution :)
=AND(OR($F3="Done";$F3="N/A");OR($G3="Done";$G3="N/A");OR($H3="Done";$H3="N/A"))
Excellent! Sorry for not being able to respond earlier, this is because we do not monitor comments on weekends :)