101 Ready-to-Use Excel Formulas

Chapter 9: Using Formulas with Conditional Formatting

Conditional Formatting is the term given to the functionality with which Excel dynamically changes the formatting of a value, cell, or range of cells based on a set of conditions you define. Conditional formatting allows you to look at your Excel reports and make split-second determinations on which values are “good” and which are “bad,” all based on formatting.

In this chapter, you explore a few examples of how you can use the Conditional Formatting feature in Excel in conjunction with formulas to add an extra layer of visualizations to your analyses.

The Conditional Formatting feature is fairly robust and includes many bells and whistles that we don’t cover here. To adhere to the spirit of this book, we focus on the techniques for applying conditional formatting with formulas.

You can download the files for all the formulas at www.wiley.com/go/101excelformula.

Formula 93: Highlight Cells That Meet Certain Criteria

One of the more basic Conditional Formatting rules that you can create is the highlighting of cells that meet some business criteria. This first example demonstrates the formatting of cells that fall under a hard-coded value of 4000 (see Figure 9-1).

Figure 9-1: The cells in this table are conditionally formatted ...