5 Creative Uses of Conditional Formatting in Excel

Conditional formatting in Excel helps you quickly see important data. It changes how cells look based on their values. This helps you find patterns and outliers. Here are five creative ways to use conditional formatting to make your data stand out.

1. Highlight Cells Rules

This feature helps you emphasize important data. You can highlight cells based on particular conditions. This is useful for identifying important numbers in large datasets.

Example: Highlight salaries below $50,000

1. Select the Salary column range where your salary data is located.
2. Navigate to the “Home” tab and select “Conditional Formatting” from the menu.
3. Select “Highlight Cells Rules” and then choose “Less Than” from the menu.
4. Enter “50000” in the value box.
5. Pick a formatting option, like a light red background with dark text.

This will make it easy to spot employees with salaries below $50,000.

2. Top/Bottom Rules

Top/bottom rules highlight the highest and lowest values in a dataset. You can use these rules to see the top 10% or bottom 10% of data. This helps focus on important values at a glance.

Example: Highlight the top 10% of employees by experience

1. Select the range in the Experience column where your experience data is located.
2. Navigate to the “Home” tab and select “Conditional Formatting”.
3. Select “Top/Bottom Rules” and then choose “Top 10%” from the list.
4. Choose a formatting style, such as a bold border or a distinct color.

This will highlight the top 10% of employees based on their years of experience.

3. Data Bars

Data bars add horizontal bars inside cells to display how values compare to each other. The bar’s length shows the value. This makes it easy to compare numbers directly in the table.

Example: Apply data bars to the age column

1. Select the cells in the Age column.
2. Go to “Conditional Formatting” > “Data Bars.”
3. Choose a style from the gradient or solid fill options.

Each data bar’s length will indicate the employee’s age.

4. Color Scales

Color scales use a range of colors to represent your data values. This helps you see high and low values across a range. It’s useful for spotting trends and variations in large datasets.

Example: Apply color scales to salary data

1. Select the cells in the Salary column.
2. Go to “Conditional Formatting” > “Color Scales.”
3. Choose from a variety of two- or three-color gradients.

Low salaries are coloured in lighter colors and high salaries in darker ones. The low wages are highlighted in yellow and higher in shades of orange.

5. Icon Sets

Icon sets use symbols to show data trends visually. You can assign icons like arrows or shapes to represent different values. This helps quickly identify patterns in the data without reading the numbers.

Example: Use icons to show salary distribution

1. Select the cells in the Gender column.
2. Go to “Conditional Formatting” > “Icon Sets.”
3. Select an icon set that fits your data, such as traffic lights or arrows.
4. Define the thresholds for each icon to categorize the salaries

This method uses symbols to show salary distribution in the dataset. Salaries below 30,000 are highlighted in red. Salaries between 30,000 and 50,000 are colored yellow, and salaries above 50,000 are colored green.

Conclusion

Conditional formatting in Excel helps you analyze and present data effectively. It lets you use highlight cells rules, top/bottom rules, data bars, color scales, and icon sets. They save time and help you make better decisions.