Inside Excel's Conditional Formatting Feature

Author: David H. Ringstrom

Conditional formatting is one of the most powerful, and yet sometimes most frustrating features in Microsoft Excel. In this course Excel expert David H. Ringstrom, CPA delves deep into the nuances of conditional formatting. Techniques will range from simple color coding to sophisticated techniques such as highlighting every other row, or formatting a set of cells based on amounts in other cells. David demonstrates every technique at least twice: first, on a PowerPoint slide with numbered steps, and second, in the subscription-based Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) version of Excel. David draws your attention to any differences in the older versions of Excel (2021, 2019, 2016 and earlier) during the course as well as in his detailed handouts. David also provides an Excel workbook that includes most of the examples he uses during the course. Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based product that provides new feature updates as often as monthly. Conversely, the perpetual licensed versions of Excel have feature sets that don't change. Perpetual licensed versions have year numbers, such as Excel 2021, Excel 2019, and so on.

Publication Date: June 2023

Designed For
Users who work with large data sets in Excel and want to learn ways to streamline their filtering and formatting tasks.

Topics Covered

• Avoiding frustration by understanding the nuances between Enter and Edit modes
• Color-coding cells between a range of amounts
• Color-coding date ranges with conditional formatting
• Color-coding the top ten (or however many you wish) amounts within a column of numbers with Conditional Formatting
• Combining the COUNTIF function with Conditional Formatting to highlight the second and further instances of entries on a list
• Comparing two techniques for determining if Conditional Formatting has been applied to a worksheet and, if so, where
• Controlling two or more conditional formatting rules by way of the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager
• Crafting custom conditional formatting rules that highlight alternating sets of rows, such as every other five rows
• Creating an instant heat mapping with the Color Scales conditional formatting
• Enlivening staid lists of numbers with the Data Bars conditional formatting
• Filtering lists of data based on cell icons applied via Conditional Formatting
• Formatting cells based on amounts in a separate column

Learning Objectives

• Identify which menu the Conditional Formatting command appears on in Excel
• Describe the purpose of the Reapply command in Excel
• Identify which Conditional Formatting feature fills cells with color sized commensurate with the underlying cell values
• Identify the Clear All option that would remove conditional formatting from a range of cells
• Identify the command that can be chosen when you right-click a cell that has conditional formatting to only show cells that have been color-coded
• Identify the command used on the Conditional Formatting menu to edit an existing rule
• Identify the keyboard shortcut that undoes your last action in Excel
• Identify the ribbon tab that the PivotTable command appears on

Level
Intermediate

Instructional Method
Self-Study

NASBA Field of Study
Computer Software & Applications (2 hours)

Program Prerequisites
Experience with Excel Spreadsheets.

Advance Preparation
None