Comments on: Excel Conditional Formatting tutorial with examples

Excel conditional formatting is a really powerful feature when it comes to applying different formats to data that meets certain conditions. It can help you highlight the most important information in your spreadsheets and spot variances of cell values with a quick glance. Continue reading →

Table of contents

Comments page 2. Total comments: 316

  1. Can you use conditional formatting to change background colour depending on the case of individual letter (CHAR) been LOWER or UPPER? i.e. 'c' or 'C'

    1. Hi!
      For uppercase letters, this formula will return TRUE

      =AND(CODE(LEFT(A2,1))<91,CODE(LEFT(A2,1))>64)

      I hope it’ll be helpful. If something is still unclear, please feel free to ask.

      1. I prefer this:
        =EXACT(LEFT(A2,1),UPPER(LEFT(A2,1)))

  2. Sir
    in m column 3 text Refund, Failed & Succes

    now if text Success than a b c row is highted in colour

    thanks

    1. Hello!
      To check if the text "Succes" is in the cell, use the formula

      =IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("Succes",A1,1)),TRUE,FALSE)

      You can learn more about SEARCH function in Excel in this article on our blog.

  3. Hello,

    I am trying to use conditional Formatting > Format only cells that contain>cell value between (then I have the values copies from a seperate sheet. I have created 4 different rules with 4 different values. The first two rules work, but the 3rd, and 4th do not. The weird thing is if I move up my third rule to the second position it will work, but it is still only the first two rules that will work. Please help!

    Rules:
    Cell Value Between ='Employee List'!$B$2 and ='Employee List'!$B$16
    Cell Value Between ='Employee List'!$B$20 and ='Employee List'!$B$30
    Cell Value Between ='Employee List'!$B$34 and ='Employee List'!$B$39
    Cell Value Between ='Employee List'!$B$43 and ='Employee List'!$B$70

    1. Hi,
      The information you provided is not enough to understand your case and give you any advice, sorry. You haven't written what formulas you are using.
      Pay attention to the following paragraph of the article above: "Apply several conditional formatting rules to one cell — Using "Stop If True" in conditional formatting rules"
      If you describe the problem in more detail, I will try to help you.

  4. I need to highlight a cell that doesn’t contain 48

  5. Hi
    I have a cell with a % range in it ie 1-2% and in the next cell I want the LMs to suggest a % increase within the range. However if they go over that range ie 2.5% I want that cell to flag red, is this possible?

      1. Hi Alexander
        For example
        Column A will have a list of % ranges that managers can choice to apply a % increase within:
        1-2%
        2.25-2.3%
        2-3%
        And so on

        In Column B, I only want them to choice a % within that range. If they go over I’d like it to flag up/highlight

  6. Hello- I need your help with conditional format formula. I want it to highlight cell A1 if cell A1 is 50% less than B1. Also if I have a lot of cells with 0 i want to make sure there is no color.
    I after that I can create same formula different percentages.
    thank you,
    Le

  7. Good day.
    I have a spread sheet of 300+ line. I want to add a formula what hides values what is the same amount, but opposite (positive and negetive).
    A1 -35,00
    A2 -34,80
    A3 -33,26
    A4 -15,00
    A5 32,12
    A6 33,26
    A7 34,80

    Example:
    A1 - Stay
    (A2,A7) Hide Same number, but opposite value(positive and negative)
    (A3,A6) Hide Same number, but opposite value(positive and negative)
    A4 - Stay
    A5 - Stay

    Thank you

  8. I want to copy from one sheet to another.
    If the total of the cell is > 499.00
    I want to copy the entire row into another sheet in the same workbook

  9. Dear Concern,
    I am very novish in using Excel, I am a business man, for my own business I have to make my Inventory Management System.From viewing Youtube I have almost built my system but in some case I am stuck. In my "Stock Out" section when stock out command quantity is more than (Opening qty+Stock In qty) there I want "SHORT" word should appear. But this thing I cannot do. Can you Please help me in this issue,how can i solve it.
    Thanks with regards
    Wahid

  10. Hello i want a doubt to be cleared!
    so when i am applying conditional formatting for a cell which is which four different conditions
    1, i need red colour when i use the formula to determine the cells to format For eg there is another cell, when the condition is met then i need it red.
    2, when i am using format only cells that contains - in that i have given blanks, and no format
    3, I need yellow when i am using the format only cell that contain - in that i given cell value - and select equal and i select a cell to which it should be equal.
    4, the last one is i am using format only top and bottom ranked values - in that i give bottom - and i select 1 and i give a colour to that.

    the problem is it is not displaying as the way i need there is some mismatch happening.
    Could you please help with this. Thank you in advance.

  11. Difference between conditional formatting and regular formatting

  12. ***Select the range E2:E30 and create a new conditional formatting rule that uses a formula to apply yellow fill and bold font to values that sold for less than or equal to 70% of the sticker price.****

    The only thing i'm stuck at is the formula. can any one help me figure it out.
    Thanks.

  13. Is there a way to create conditional formatting in a line graph? I have created a monte carlo simulation and I have only graphed the first 50 series on the line graph. I would like to make the lines that are above $1 green and the lines below $1 red.

  14. I want to make a two different colour in the same column if the number is double mins two times then it will be yellow and the other hand number will be more then two times then it will be red

  15. in versions of 2010, 2013& 2016 and 2017, 2018, 2019 in all ms word, ms excels& ms power point all Groups, all Tool Bars names And DETAILS send me in and all shortcuts KEYS sent me
    in now all in now
    for me my G- mail ID

  16. In Excel new formatting, use a formula to determine which cells to format, im trying to create a formula to change the font color based on a cell value of B10 (+/-0.007) IE Anything beetween 9.9993 and 10.0007 should be "True" is that possible?

  17. how to copy conditional format from one cell to rows, which drag formulas to rang of rows

  18. how to copy condintion format from one cell to rows

  19. Hi experts, can you please tell me how to move the date on a plot(x axis)back to the bottom once I have changed to y axis to a logarithmic scale?

  20. I'm trying to format whole rows based on the data in column AB, using formula =$AB10>0 but it doesn't highlight anything. What am I doing wrong?
    The data in column AB is currency, and I need the rows highlighted if the value in AB is greater than $0.00.

  21. Hello, I am tring to color code a Rank of numbers in a single column. This column contains positive, zero, and negative numbers. I have 3 conditional rules, for 1,2, & 3 places
    1st Place the CF is (Cell Value equal to) =LARGE($G$235:$G$264,1)
    2nd Place the CF is (Cell Value equal to) =LARGE($G$235:$G$264,2)
    3rd Place the CF is (Cell Value equal to) =LARGE($G$235:$G$264,3)
    My test numbers are: -4, -2, 4, 0, 2
    First place is 4, correct. Second Place is 2, correct, Third place is -2, wrong. It should be zero.
    Can you help ?
    Thanks

  22. Show the names of employees in blue text color who have salary greater than or equal to 3000 and show the names in green text color for those earning less than 3000.

  23. i want select the one colour gradient bt only two colour is available how i can choos one colour or preset

  24. I want to color max value. but unable to color max value like that one (1). how to do it

  25. hi does anybody know how to make yes have a background value of 100%?

    So I am able link it to a dependent and can average everything out.

  26. Hello,
    I have a total of 50 employees. On a separate sheet, I have the list of employees who filed for leaves on a specific day however I'd like to highlight only the first 10% of 50 (which is 5) since the allowed number of leaves per day is 5 only. The basis is the Transaction ID:

    "Transaction
    ID" Employee # Name Date and Time Rqstd
    1 F025630 John Smith 4:30:03 PM
    2 F025631 John Doe 7:32:03 PM
    3 F025632 Jane Doe 12:30:03 AM
    4 F025633 Jane Smith 1:30:03 AM
    5 F025634 Tony Stark 1:35:03 AM
    6 F025635 Steve Rogers 1:36:03 AM
    7 F025636 Clint Barton 2:30:03 AM
    8 F025637 Natasha Romanoff3:30:03 AM
    9 F025638 Bruce Banner 6:30:03 AM
    10 F025639 Thor Odinson 9:30:03 AM

    How do I do that?

  27. please help me ,
    if i am type 20-2 in excle 2013 then excle take 43151 value , not take correct value so how to resolve this

    1. Dinesh:
      How is the cell you're entering the 20-2 formatted?
      Try formatting it in another way.
      Right click select Format Cells and then choose another option from that list. Maybe text.

  28. Please help.

    So I’m not sure what to use or what to do. So I’m trying to make an inventory sheet, so right now b9,c9, is 10 where e9,f9 is 10 and h9,i9 is 10. So when i9 goes to “0” I want h9 to Recognise and talk to f9 and say hey I’m giving my value of 10 to i9 so you will need to talk to e9 and Your Your 10 from him. Do I make sense?

  29. What are the different number formats?How will you change the format of the number?write the steps

  30. I want to set the conditions of a cell to:
    today's date - 180 days turn red
    today's date - 135 days turn orange
    today's date - 90 days turn yellow
    today's date - 75 days turns green

    Can anyone help?

    1. Josh:
      You've asked to apply four different conditional formats based on four different conditions, so you'll need four rules all applied to the same range of cells.
      Select the range of cells to which you want to apply the rules.
      Select Conditional Formatting, select Highlight Cell Rules, then More Rules, then select Use Formula to determine which cells to format.
      Where the range is H48:H51, in the field that is displayed enter this formula:
      =AND(H48>TODAY(),H48=(TODAY()+75))
      Notice that the formula references the top left cell in the range H48:H51. Your range and top left cell is probably different, but this formula must reference the top left cell in the range.
      Notice that this formula will apply the formatting to the date that is 75 days from today.
      The H48>TODAY() ensures the date in H48 is not in the past.
      You asked for TODAY()+ 180, etc. so the formula includes H48=(TODAY()+75), etc. So it is only formatting the cells that are equal to 180 days (or whatever number of days)from today. Not greater than the number of days from today. This allows you to put different formatting to each rule and specific future date.
      Select format, then choose the fill color then OK and then apply and OK your way back to the dialogue window that displays the rules.
      In that window you'll want to click Add New Rule so that you can enter a new rule which will have the same formula except that you'll change the "+" number to the different number of days and different formatting for each different rule.
      Follow this same procedure until you have all four rules and their respective formatting the way you want them.

  31. how can i add 2 cell the second cell will petch or getch the data of the first cell and after adding it the 1 cell will reset to zero and the second cell will stay its value
    for example
    1+0=1 then after the sum it will be like this
    0+1=1 then i will input new no. to cell 1
    2+1=3 the the the second cell will show the total and the 1cell will be reset to 0

  32. Hey,

    Can someone help me with the below one ?

    A reports to B and B reports to C and c reports to D and so on hierarchy..

    Now there are certain expectations wherein A reports directly to D .. in case I want to pull n represent this as per hierarchy how should I do it ?

    Endly, let’s assume 5000 employees hierarchy is X and 3000 hierarchy is Y how should we add them up together

  33. Thank you very much for these tutorials, they are so useful!!!!

  34. How To Highlight Row If Cell Contains Text/Value/Blank In Excel

  35. how do you compare figures that are in the same raw. e. g show how the deposits made perform against each other.

  36. Hello,

    I am trying to highlight cells in column C based on the second digit in a 10-digit code - I want each cell in that column highlighted one color if that digit is N, another color if that digit is not an N. I assume I will need two rules, and am trying to use the formulas =mid(c2,2,1)="N" and =mid(c2,2,1)"N". When I tested the formulas in a blank column the "true" and "false" come up correct, but when I put them into a Conditional Formatting rule, they are not highlighting the correct cells. Any suggestions?

  37. Hello i have a work list sheet with multiple items on then i have a date type in two different columns i have a 90 day wjndow from the date to complete the work by the date i was trying to figure out how to have the celss turn red after the 90 is past

  38. Correction
    Kindly anybody has Idea, I have one text cell in Excel, hwo to divide that text into two cells ( I have 7000 full text cells with full text and I want to make the cells less high with transferring half the cell content to new cell in between the existing full cells) unfortunately this web has no facility to past a screen shot to attach to explain in an example what I want to do, Thanks in adv. and happy new year

    1. Hello,

      I'm afraid there's no easy way to solve your task with a formula. Using a VBA macro would be the best option here.

      However, since we do not cover the programming area (VBA-related questions), I can advice you to try and look for the solution in VBA sections on mrexcel.com or excelforum.com.

      Sorry I can't assist you better.

  39. Kindly anybody has Idea, I have one text cell in Excel, who to divide that text into tow cells ( I have 7000 full text cells with full text and I want to make the cells less high with transferring half the cell content to new cell in between the existing full cells) unfortunately this web has no facility to past a screen shot to attach to explain in an example what I want to do

  40. Hi -
    I want to trigger a cell to change color depending on the % in another cell. I have been able to create rules for 0% in T8 to trigger U8 Grey, 80% T8 to trigger U8 orange, but when I add 100% T8 to trigger U8 Green it doesn't work and still triggers orange. Can you let me know what I am doing wrong?
    Thanks for any and all your help!!!

    1. Hello,
      For me to understand the problem better, please send me a small sample workbook with your source data and the result you expect to get to support@ablebits.com. Please don't worry if you have confidential information there, we never disclose the data we get from our customers and delete it as soon as the problem is resolved.
      Please also don't forget to include the link to this comment into your email.
      I'll look into your task and try to help.

  41. Hi,

    I am not sure if it has been mention above but I am stuck with a formula.

    I want the following: If $X2 is not blank / empty and $W2 has a negative value (loss) then the entire row goes red. If $W2 has a positive value (revenue) then the entire row goes blue.

    I have tried few things but I don't know. I have tried this for example =IF($W2<0,ISBLANK=$X2=FALSE)

    1. Thanks in advance :-)

  42. Hi,

    I am trying to highlight number of cell with the number i keyin, what is the formula for this situation?

    Thanks

  43. Hello,
    I am trying to create a training document. The document will contain several employees, each having a date they were certified, and then a date that they will be due to re-certify. I am trying to figure out the formulas that I would need to input in order to change the row either red=overdue, yellow=due within 90 days, and green=91days>. The formula that seems to be closest to what I need is Rule1=datedif($A2,Today(),"d")>=1:89,Rule2=datedif($A2,today(),"d")>=90:275, and Rule3=datedif($A2,today(),"d")>=276 but for some reason the rules are keeping all three colors from showing. could you please point me in the right direction and thank you for your time.

    1. Hello, Ian,

      Please try the following formulas:

      Rule1=AND(DATEDIF($A2,TODAY(),"d")>=1,DATEDIF($A2,TODAY(),"d")<=89)
      Rule2=AND(DATEDIF($A2,TODAY(),"d")>=90,DATEDIF($A2,TODAY(),"d")<=275)
      Rule3=DATEDIF($A2,TODAY(),"d")>=276

      Hope it will help you.

  44. Hi,
    I want to keep conditional formatting in dates for vehicles record. when i enter the current it should check last 6 month records. if it's there will change automatically.

  45. Hi all,

    My problem is probably very basic in comparison with all of yours but i am not an excel bizz and I couldn't find the resolution in the above comments or tutorial...
    At work i have created a spreadsheet for all our new clients and all of the checks and ID they have top provide etc. before we can start working for them. When all of the checks have been passed and they have supplied sufficient information about themselves for our records the date of completion is put in the end column. How can I make this cell with the date in turn red after a year of the date? As this is when we have to request new up-to-date information from them... Any help would be greatly appreciated asap!

  46. Privet vsem!

    Sorry for disturbing you, but I am a newbie to Excel fomatting and need some help. I have an excel sheet where I keep the profiles of people(name, last name, performance, ....). I do have multiple copies of the same person(let's call him Andrey Goncharov) on my sheet as I am copying it from another source (every week). So last week I marked Andrey's "Performance" column as a "Top Performer". When I copy (from a different source) again this week, if there is Andrey Goncharov, I want Excel to auto-fill the "Performance" column of a new copy as a "Top Performer", because I already have done before for that person. I hope I could explain my issue.

    Thanks a lot for your help and support, you are a wonderful team :).

    Ben

    1. Hello, Ben,

      I'm sorry, it's difficult to come up with any suggestion, since we don't know how your data is stored and there are too many peculiarities that can affect the way your task should be solved.
      If you still require our assistance, feel free to send us your example workbook with the source information and the result you want to get to support@ablebits.com. Please include the link to this comment into the email.
      Our technical specialist will take a look at your task and try to help.

  47. Hi

    I have table shown below
    no low high b/s present
    01 105 125 b 105
    02 252 183 s 183
    03 453 522 s 522

    In need a formula for present column in such that if b/s column contain "b" then present column value should be low column otherwise if b/s column contain "s" then the value of present cell should be high . could you please give me the formula for the above case

  48. I cant seem to work this out, I know its simple but my brain is fried.

    I need to use conditional formatting to say Target met if there has been an increase of 5% in 2015 from 2014 and improvement needed if there has not been a 5% increase. Its the % that are confusing me. Thanks

    2014
    Strongly Agree
    A2 0.93
    A3 0.97
    A4 0.92
    A5 0.93
    A6 0.95
    A7 0.89
    A8 0.82

    2015
    Strongly Agree
    A13 0.91
    A14 0.91
    A15 0.9
    A16 0.89
    A17 0.88
    A18 0.8
    A19 0.75

  49. Hi

    Im trying to add a conditions into a excel sheet to highlight the cell in chosen colour.

    EG
    if figure is cell A is equal to or more than 25% of the figure in Cell B, then colour cell A Red, otherwise colour cell A Green.

    are you able to help me with a simple formular. I am using excel 2016

    thank you

  50. Hello,
    Perhaps someone might be able to help me. I'm an intermediate excel user but haven't extended much past simple formulas.

    I am working on a project with a column dedicated to using 3-4 single letters to represent different words. Is there a way to conditionally format so a blank column would automatically change the font color given the letter imputed into the cell?
    i.e. C=Card, B=Basket, K=Keep Brunch,F=Flowers, N=Nothing

    C=orange
    K=Blue
    B=Purple
    N=Red

    Thanks so much!

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