Excel Conditional Formatting tutorial with examples

The tutorial explains all main features of Excel conditional formatting with examples. You will learn how to do conditional formatting in any version of Excel, efficiently use preset rules or create new ones, edit, copy and clear formatting.

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.

Many users, especially beginners, find it intricate and obscure. If you feel intimidated and uncomfortable with this feature, please don't! In fact, conditional formatting in Excel is very straightforward and easy to use, and you will make sure of this in just 5 minutes when you have finished reading this tutorial :)

What is conditional formatting in Excel?

Excel Conditional Formatting is used to apply certain formatting to data that meets one or more conditions. Just like usual cell formatting, it lets you highlight and differentiate your data in various ways by changing cells' fill color, font color, border styles, etc. The difference is that it is more flexible and dynamic - when the data changes, conditional formats get updated automatically to reflect the changes.

Conditional formatting can be applied to individual cells or entire rows based on the value of the formatted cell itself or another cell. To conditionally format your data, you can utilize preset rules such as Color Scales, Data Bars and Icon Sets or create custom rules where you define when and how the selected cells should be highlighted. Excel conditional formatting

Where is conditional formatting in Excel?

In all versions of Excel 2010 through Excel 365, conditional formatting resides in the same place: Home tab > Styles group > Conditional formatting. Conditional formatting on the Excel ribbon

Now that you know where to find conditional formatting in Excel, let's move on and see how you can leverage it in your daily work to make more sense of the project you are currently working on.

For our examples, we will use Excel 365, which seems to be the most popular version these days. However, the options are essentially the same in all Excels, so you won't have any problems with following no matter what version is installed on your computer.

How to use conditional formatting in Excel

To truly leverage the capabilities of conditional format, you need to learn how to utilize various rule types. The good news is that whatever rule you are going to apply, it defines the two key things:

  • What cells are covered by the rule.
  • What condition should be met.

So, here's how you use Excel conditional formatting:

  1. In your spreadsheet, select the cells you want to format.
  2. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click Conditional Formatting.
  3. From a set of inbuilt rules, choose the one that suits your purpose.

    As an example, we are going to highlight values less than 0, so we click Highlight Cells Rules > Less Than… Using preset Highlight Cells Rules
  4. In the dialog window that appears, enter the value in the box on the left and choose the desired format from the drop-down list on the right (default is Light Red Fill with Dark Red Text).

    When done, Excel will show you a preview of formatted data. If you are happy with the preview, click OK. Preview of the conditionally formatted data

In a similar manner, you can use any other rule type that is more appropriate for your data, such as:

  • Greater than or equal to
  • Between two values
  • Text that contains specific words or characters
  • Date occurring in a certain range
  • Duplicate values
  • Top/bottom N numbers

How to use a preset rule with custom formatting

If none of the predefined formats suits you, you can choose any other colors for cells' background, font or borders. Here's how:

  1. In the preset rule dialog box, from the drop-down list on the right, pick Custom Format… Setting up custom formatting
  2. In the Format Cells dialog window, switch between the Font, Border and Fill tabs to choose the desired font style, border style and background color, respectively. As you do this, you will immediately see a preview of the selected format. When done, click OK. Choosing the fill color
  3. Click OK one more time to close the previous dialog window and apply the custom formatting of your choice. Custom format is applied to the selected cells.

Tips:

  • If you want more colors than the standard palette provides, click the More Colors… button on the Fill or Font tab.
  • If you wish to apply a gradient background color, click the Fill Effects button on the Fill tab and choose the desired options.

How to create a new conditional formatting rule

If none of the preset rules meets your needs, you can create a new one from scratch. To get it done, follow these steps:

  1. Select the cells to be formatted and click Conditional Formatting > New Rule. Create a new conditional formatting rule in Excel.
  2. In the New Formatting Rule dialog box that opens, select the rule type.

    For example, to format cells with percent change less than 5% in either direction, we choose Format only cells that contain, and then configure the rule like shown in the screenshot below: Choose the conditional formatting rule type.
  3. Click the Format… button, and then choose the Fill or/and Font color you want.
  4. Click OK twice to close both dialog windows and your conditional formatting is done! New conditional formatting rule is created and applied to the selected cells.

Excel conditional formatting based on another cell

In the previous examples, we highlighted cells based on "hardcoded" values. However, in some cases it makes more sense to base your condition on a value in another cell. The advantage of this approach is that irrespective of how the cell value changes in future, your formatting will adjust automatically to respond to the change.

As an example, let's highlight prices in column B that are greater than the threshold price in cell D2. To accomplish this, the steps are:

  1. Click Conditional formatting> Highlight Cells Rules > Greater Than…
  2. In the dialog box that pops up, place the cursor in the text box on the left (or click the Collapse Dialog icon), and select cell D2.
  3. When done, click OK.

As a result, all the prices higher than the value in D2 will get highlighted with the selected color: Create a conditional formatting rule based on another cell value.

That is the simplest case of conditional formatting based on another cell. More complex scenarios may require the use of formulas. And you can find several examples of such formulas along with the step-by-step instructions here:

Apply multiple conditional formatting rules to same cells

When using conditional formats in Excel, you are not limited to only one rule per cell. You can apply as many rules as your business logic requires.

For example, you can create 3 rules to highlight prices higher than $105 in red, higher than $100 in orange, and higher than $99 in yellow. For the rules to work correctly, you need to arrange them in the right order. If the "greater than 99" rule is placed first, then only the yellow formatting will be applied because the other two rules won't have a chance to be triggered - obviously, any number that is higher than 100 or 105 is also higher than 99 :)

To re-arrange the rules, this is what you need to do:

  1. Select any cell in your dataset covered by the rules.
  2. Open the Rules Manager by clicking Conditional Formatting > Manage Rules…
  3. Click the rule that needs to be applied first, and then use the upward arrow to move it to top. Do the same for the second-in-priority rule.
  4. Select the Stop If True check box next to all but the last rule because you do not want the subsequent rules to be applied when the prior condition is met.
Arrange the conditional formatting rules in the right order

What is Stop if True in Excel conditional formatting?

The Stop If True option in conditional formatting prevents Excel from processing other rules when a condition in the current rule is met. In other words, if two or more rules are set for the same cell and Stop if True is enabled for the first rule, the subsequent rules are disregarded after the first rule is activated.

In the example above, we have already used this option to ignore subsequent rules when the first-in-priority rule applies. That usage is quite evident. And here are another couple of examples where the use of the Stop If True function is not so obvious but extremely helpful:

How to edit Excel conditional formatting rules

To make some changes to an existing rule, proceed in this way:

  1. Select any cell to which the rule applies and click Conditional Formatting > Manage Rules…
  2. In the Rules Manager dialog box, click the rule you want to modify, and then click the Edit Rule… button. Edit a conditional formatting rule in Excel.
  3. In the Edit Formatting Rule dialog window, make the required changes and click OK to save the edits.

    That dialog window looks very similar to the New Formatting Rule dialog box used for creating a new rule, so you won't have any difficulties with it.

Tip. If you don't see the rule you want to edit, then select This Worksheet from the Show formatting rules for drop-down list at the top of the Rules Manager dialog box. This will display the list of all the rules in your worksheet.

How to copy Excel conditional formatting

To apply a conditional format you've created earlier to other data, you won't need to re-create a similar rule from scratch. Simply use Format Painter to copy the existing conditional formatting rule(s) to another data set. Here's how:

  1. Click any cell with the formatting you want to copy.
  2. Click Home > Format Painter. This will change the mouse pointer to a paintbrush.

    Tip. To copy the formatting to multiple non-contiguous cells or ranges, double-click Format Painter.

  3. To paste the copied formatting, click on the first cell and drag the paintbrush down to the last cell in the range you want to format. Copy conditional formatting to another range of cells.
  4. When done, press Esc to stop using the paintbrush.
  5. Select any cell in your new dataset, open the Rules Manager and check the copied rule(s).

Note. If the copied conditional formatting uses a formula, you may need to adjust cell references in the formula after copying the rule.

How to delete conditional formatting rules

I've saved the easiest part for last :) To delete a rule, you can either:

  • Open the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager, select the rule and click the Delete Rule button. Delete a conditional formatting rule.
  • Select the range of cells, click Conditional Formatting > Clear Rules and choose the option that fits your needs. Clear conditional formatting rules in Excel.

This is how you do conditional formatting in Excel. Hopefully, these very simple rules we created were helpful to get a grasp of the basics. Below, you can find a few more tutorials that can help you understand the inner mechanics and expand conditional formatting in your spreadsheets far beyond its traditional uses.

You may also be interested in

Table of contents

314 comments

  1. im building 5 town houses, i owe the bank 2.5 million
    when i have sell for 5 townhouses lets say 600- 700 thousand each
    in excel i got
    2.5m in cell B3
    every time i sell a house i enter the price and it deducts from B3
    lets say i have 300 thousand left to pay off showing in B3
    i enter 400 thousand i want the B3 to be zero and what is leftover goes to a different cell
    hope this makes sense

  2. Hi
    i have names lised in a column 1-15.
    What i am trying to do is is, that if one of those same names appears in another cell in the same column, that the original name in the column 1-15 disappears and turns a different colour?
    Is this possible through conditionl formatting?
    Ray

  3. Hello
    I need help.
    I want to see only one cell in which conditional formatting applied on the basis of value entered in the cell.That means if i enter 10% then 10% of the cell will coloured, if i enter 50% then 50% will be colored,if i will enter 100% then full cell will be coloured.(This is for only one cell).

    Thanks in advance.

  4. I'm trying to make a timecard that calculates both regular and overtime hours. I want to make it where when I reach a total of 40 hours in regular time it stops entering data in the cells in the regular time column and any time over 40 hours will then start showing up in the cells in the overtime column.

    I apologies if this doesn't make sense

  5. Hello!,

    I am designing a hitmap using conditional formatting and I would like not to show the value in the cell. I have tried modifing the format of the cell by writting the comand ;;;; in the costum blog of the cell format... but does not work... any idea on how to "Hide" the cell value?

    Thanks

  6. How to Get? - If amongst 4 cells if I put 1 in any of the cells, rest of the three cell should be showing 0. How to do that?
    Which formula to use?

  7. hi

    i have series of rows employee wise , with character p entered for present on applicable dates in a month , i want to highlight the column where p consecutively appears in a row 10th time

  8. Hi,
    i want to learn how to make alert(thru highlight) when the stocks was below safe level. i was able to find out how for 1 row but my problem was how to do it if i'm monitoring 1 thousand items wherein i don't have to do it 1 by 1. 2nd, is it possible to highlight the entire row?

    example
    item on hand safety stock
    a1 10 15
    a2 11 14
    ....
    a1000 12 10

    • Hi, Edilberto,
      if C column indicates safety stock and it should not (ideally) exceed the number of items on hand (column B) then the formula for conditional formatting rule is:
      =$C1<$B1
      and it applies to =$A:$C.
      It will also highlight the raw if C is empty.
      If you want something other than that, please, specify.

      Also, here is a great tutorial on how to highlight an entire raw.

  9. Hi,

    Can someone please help me. I need to do conditional formatting on values that are on different worksheets.Cell O5 in worksheet A if it's found in Cell I in worksheet B to be highlighted as whatever colour.

    Many thanks

  10. hi
    I need to be able to register in two cells the highest and lowest negative and positive results from a changing portfolio total in order not to have to manually monitor and record these myself. I am a complete novice when it comes to formatting cells so a simple abc approach would be very much appreciated.

    Many thanks

    • Hi, David,

      let's say that your totals are in the 7th row (A7:G7). And you have two other cells where you want to see the highest and lowest results. So, for the lowest one you put the next formula in the cell:
      =MIN(A7:G7)
      (where A7:G7 is your range of the results)
      For the highest one, enter another formula in another cell:
      =MAX(A7:G7)
      Every time the results change, these formulas will adjust the highest and the lowest numbers.

      If you need to find the lowest AND the highest for negative results, the lowest AND highest for positive ones, let us know what Excel version you're currently using.

      • Natalla

        Many thanks for your advice, much appreciated.

        I may not have explained the problem correctly. I have one cell with an ever-changing total, both post and neg, which I record in two other cells, one recording the highest positive and the other the highest negative. I would like to be able to record these automatically so need the formula for each cell to do that.

        I am using Excell for Mac 2011 version 14.7.3

        Apologies for any misunderstanding and thanks once again

  11. Hi team
    i have a doubt regarding the average of values, for suppose if we have two trials TS1 and TS2, in which i have got TS1 is 0.08% and TS2 is 0.03%, the average we required is from the values which are >0.05% it means the final value from above is 0.08%. for this i have kept a command that =IF(AVERAGE(D14,F14)<0.05,"<0.05",AVERAGE(D14,F14)). for suppose the values for TS1 and TS2 both are <0.05% it means if TS1 is 0.03 and TS2 is 0.04 then the Average value to be displayed is <0.05. but iam not able to get it, plz anyone can help me out.....

  12. Hy Svetlana
    Today I Read Your excel formula where i am very pleasant because you solve many people problem i need some help
    example
    i create timing report
    ( Like )
    Real In Time: Employ In Time (Remarks)
    9:00 9:25 late
    9:00 9:28 late
    9:00 9:18 OK
    9:00 9:22 late
    i want formula which show automatically status if employ 20 mint late come

  13. Good day. Please assist me as i have to insert an IF formula for an evaluation tool. I have an overall average calculated for the tool however i require an IF formula that states if a certain criteria = 0 then the overall evaluation average should =0.

  14. Hi Svetlana
    I used your instructions for conditional formatting, which worked wonderfully, thank you! However, I'm now stumped as to how to copy these colours over, I will try to explain:
    Used the formatting to fill colour in cells of varying "greater than" amounts relating to an average value which is based on a figure entered each week. So the names of people are down column A and each column after has their weekly score. Column AA has the average, which is coloured accordingly. I'd like to have the cell containing the name of each person to automatically fill with the same colour as the one containing their average score.
    I am a complete novice at this, hope you can help :)

  15. I have a column with data in it with 3 rules set up. The rules are if the value is less than 80, highlight the cell in red, if the value is between 80 and 89, highlight in yellow and if the value is between 90 and 100, highlight the cell in green. Everything works as it should. I would like to know if it is possible to create another conditional format rule for all cells to the right of my column with values in it that will highlight the cells for each line of data to change color based on the data column?

    I only want to input values in the one column all the way to the left. The rest of the columns to the right only change color based on that column of cells.

  16. please send your mail id. i want to send a spread sheet to you. That's my worksheet for deviation statement for govt sector. i need your hepl to fixing the formula in this worksheet. thanking

  17. Is it possible to get copies of the workbooks you use in your conditional formatting articles so I can practice?

  18. I want use to Conditional formatting

    If A Column is "Sunday",

    Then B Column Fill Red color. Is this possible

  19. Thank you Irina.

  20. I want to implement alternating rows conditional formatting only if a field in Column A (A5:A500). Please help how I can achieve that? The formatting that I want to include is adding a border and filling the cell with a colour. Cheers.

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 :)