A more recent version of the Excel course is available here: Excel Course

Excel Course: Conditional Formatting

As you can tell from its name, conditional formatting (abbreviated CF) is formatting that is applied under particular conditions.

Let's begin with a few "ready to use" CF examples.

Select the target cells and choose the CF "Greater than...":

insert cf excel conditional formatting

Enter a limit value (in this case, 50'000) and choose a format.

cf greater than excel conditional formatting

The formatting will now be applied to all values greater than 50'000.

display cf greater than excel conditional formatting

If you choose the "Top 10 Items..." CF, the formatting will be applied to the 10 highest values in the cell range.

cf top items excel conditional formatting

You can select the number of values to highlight (in this case, 5) as well as their formatting.

choose number values excel conditional formatting

Now the 5 highest values have been formatted following your instructions.

display cf highest values excel conditional formatting

Example using data bars:

cf data bars excel conditional formatting

Example using color scales:

cf color scales excel conditional formatting

Example using icon sets:

cf icon sets excel conditional formatting