How To Use Conditional Formatting In Excel to Highlight Patterns and Trends in a Heap of Data

Conditional Formatting In Excel

Key Points from The Article:

• Conditional formatting is an excellent feature of Excel that highlights trends and patterns on large spreadsheets.
• Your business can apply conditional formatting differently to bring attention to specific cells.
• Conditional formatting can help you pinpoint specific information in a heap of data.

Conditional formatting is an excellent feature that allows you to automatically apply highlight or font format to cells on a large spreadsheet. The feature allows you to add color and bring attention to specific cells.

With conditional formatting, you can change the appearance of the cell you select depending on your specifications. You use conditional formatting to highlight specific cells that have values that meet particular conditions.

How to Use Conditional Formatting With Microsoft Excel

Applying the conditional format to Excel is pretty simple. Just proceed as follows:

1. Head over to your Excel spreadsheet and select a range of cells.
2. On the Home tab, find the Conditional Formatting option and click on it. A drop-down menu will open.
3. Select Highlight Cells Rules.
4. Another drop-down menu will open on your right. You’ll have an option to select several rules, including Greater Than, Less Than, Between, Equal to, Text that Contains, A Date Occurring, Duplicate Values, and More Rules.

How you proceed depends on the type of data you have and the type of formatting you want to apply.

Demonstration of Conditional Formatting With Microsoft Excel

The first two rules you can apply to the data on your spreadsheet is the Greater Than or Less Than function to highlight cells with values over or below a specific amount.

If you have a set of amount of money on Excel and you want to highlight cells that exceed a specific amount, proceed as follows, after selecting the Highlight Cells Rules:

1. Select the Greater Than rule to open a small window.
2. Enter the value such as 350 so that Excel would highlight values above it.
3. On your right, select the formatting style.
4. Click on the OK tab.
5. Excel will highlight all values above what you’ve entered.

If you change the value of any cell to anything above the value you keyed in, it will automatically change to the rule you chose.

The above procedure applies to other options such as Less Than, Between, Equal to, and Duplicate Values.

How To Apply a Quick Conditional Formatting Date Rule

If you have an Excel sheet with dates, you can use the Conditional Formatting rule to make specific dates stand out and easy to spot. You might want to highlight data for several reasons, such as:

• Upcoming dates for a project plan
• Display a coming deadline or delay
• Differentiating weekdays and weekends
• Highlight public holidays

The conditional formatting for dates allows you to set up a rule and watch your dates pop up off of the sheet. Here’s how to proceed:

1. Open an Excel sheet and select the cells you want to format.
2. Select Conditional Formatting in the Home tab.
3. A drop-down menu will open. Select the Highlight Cells Rules option.
4. A new drop-down menu will open. Find the A Date Occurring option and click on it.
5. A small window will open for you to set up a rule. Select the dates to include on the left side of the window in your sheet.
6. Head over to the right side of the window and pick the formatting style you want.
7. Click OK when you’re done to apply the conditional rule to the selected cells.

How to Clear A Conditional Formatting Rule in Your Excel Sheet

If you want to undo a conditional formatting rule, follow the following steps:

1. Select the range of cells you want to clear rules for.
2. Head over to the Home tab and select Conditional Formatting.
3. Scroll down to the Clear rules option in the drop-down menu that opens and click on it.
4. A small drop-down menu will open on your right. Select Rules from Selected Cells.

You have an option to clear all the rules in the entire sheet, a specific table, and a pivot table.

How to Highlight Cells that Are Above or Below A  Specific Percentage in Excel

To highlight cells above or below a specific percentage on an Excel sheet, proceed as follows:

1. Selects the cells with the data you want to highlight.
2. Click on the Conditional Formatting option in the Home tab.
3. From the drop-down menu that opens, select Top/Bottom Rules.
4. Another dropdown menu will open on your right to present highlight options such as Top 10 Items, Top 10%, Bottom 10 Items, Bottom 10%, Above Average, Below Average, and More Rules.
5. Select one option depending on how you want to format your Excel sheet.
6. Choose your formatting style.
7. Hit the OK option to apply the formatting you have chosen.

How to Execute Conditional Formatting With Formulas

You can also use a formula to determine which cell to format. When you use a formula to apply conditional formatting, it must evaluate as true or false.

To use a formula to execute conditional formatting, follow the process below:

1. Select multiple cells in your Excel sheet.
2. Under style, on the Home tab, find Conditional Formatting and click on it.
3. Scroll down to the drop-down menu that opens and select New Rule.
4. A small window will open with multiple options. Select the Use a formula to determine which cells to format option.
5. Another window will open below that allows you to enter the rule description.

For demonstration purposes, let’s say you want to highlight all odd numbers in your Excel sheet. Key in the formula = ISODD (A1).

1. Click on the Format option to select your formatting style.
2. Hit the OK button, and Excel will highlight all the odd numbers in your Excel sheet.

When using formulas to execute conditional formatting, always write the formula for the upper-left cell in the selected range. Excel automatically applies the formula to other cells.

Palindrome Consulting Can Help Your Business Solve All Excel and Other Microsoft 365 Needs

The Excel sheet is an essential tool for businesses to store, organize, and analyze data. The tool is excellent in enabling people in your business to identify trends in data, allows you to organize data, and sort data into meaningful categories.

Since 1999, Palindrome Consulting has helped businesses in Hollywood get the most out of the Excel spreadsheet software and can help you. Contact us to learn how you can use Excel to perform some HR functions, such as sorting worked hours and organizing employee expenses and profiles.