How to Fill Cell with Color Based on Percentage in Excel (6 Methods)

If you are looking for some special tricks to fill the cell with color based on percentage in Excel, you’ve come to the right place. In Microsoft Excel, there are numerous ways to fill the cell with color based on percentage. In this article, we’ll discuss six methods to fill the cell with color based on the percentage. Let’s follow the complete guide to learn all of this.

Fill Cell with Color Based on Percentage in Excel: 6 Methods

We have here a dataset that contains the percentage of UCB Company’s sales from different months. The main objective is to fill cells with color based on percentage.

In the following section, we will use 6 methods to fill cells with color based on the percentage.

1. Using Formula to Fill Cell with Color Based on Percentage

The following steps should be followed in order to fill the sales column with color that represents 10 percent to 15 percent of sales.

📌 Steps:

Firstly, select the range of cells C5:C10. Go to the Home tab, select Conditional Formatting, and finally select New Rule.

When the New formatting Rule dialog box appears, select the option-Use a formula to define which cells to format.
Next, in the Format values where this formula is true box, you have to insert the following formula:

=AND(D5>10%,D5<15%)

Here, D5 is the first cell of the percentage column.

Now, click on Format, when the Format cells dialogue box appears, you have to fill your desired color by selecting the Fill Click on OK.

Finally, you will get the following output which is highlighted based on the criteria:

2. Fill Cell with Color Based on Cell Value in Excel

In order to fill the sales column with the color that represents the lowest percentage of sales, follow these steps.

📌 Steps:

Firstly, select the range of cells C5:C10. Go to the Home tab, select Conditional Formatting and finally select New Rule.

When the New formatting Rule dialog box appears, select the option Format all cells based on their values.
In the Format style option select 2-Color Scale.
When the Minimum and Maximum option appears, type select the required cell in the Value option.

In column C, cell C8 is highlighted in a different color because it has the lowest value among all cells:

3. Using ‘Greater Than’ Option to Fill Cell with Color Based on Percentage

The following steps should be followed in order to fill the percentage column with a color that represents greater than 20 percent of sales.

📌 Steps:

Firstly, select the range of cells D5:D10, Go to the Home tab, select Conditional Formatting, and finally select Highlight Cells Rules.

Next, select the Greater Than option.

When the Greater Than dialogue box appears, you have to fill your desired color and type 20% on Format cells that are Greater Than Click on OK.

Finally, the cells D9 and D10 of column D are highlighted in a different color because their values are greater than 20 percent.

4. ‘Text That Contains’ Option to Fill Cell with Color in Excel

These steps will fill the month results column with a color that indicates a bad month of sales when the cell value is less than 20%.

📌 Steps:

Firstly, select the range of cells E5:E10, Go to the Home tab, select Conditional Formatting, and finally select Highlight Cells Rules.

Next, select the “Text That contains” option.

When the Text That contains a dialog box appears, you have to fill your desired color and type Bad Month on the Format cells that contain the text. Click on OK.

The cells E5:E8 in column E are highlighted in a different color because their values are less than 20 percent.

5. Using ‘Top/Bottom’ Rules Option

Following these steps will fill the percentage column with a color that indicates the lowest and highest sales percentages.

📌 Steps:

Firstly, select the range of cells D5:D10, Go to the Home tab, select Conditional Formatting, and finally select Top/Bottom Rules.

Next, select the “Top10%” option.

When the Top 10% dialogue box appears, you have to fill in your desired color. Click on OK.

Next, select the “Bottom 10%” option if you want to get the lowest percentage value.

When the Bottom 10% dialogue box appears, you have to fill in your desired color. Click on OK.

Finally, in column D, the cells D8 and D10 are highlighted in different colors because their values are the lowest and highest among all sales.

6. Fill Cell with Color Using ‘Data Bars’ Option in Excel

You have to follow the following steps to fill the cell color using the Data Bars option.

📌 Steps:

Firstly, select the range of cells D5:D10, go to the Home tab, select Conditional Formatting, and finally select Data Bars.

Next, select your desired Gradient Fill.

Finally, you will get the following output based on your criteria.

💬 Things to Remember

If you enter a formula in the conditional formatting box, you should carefully enter the formula.

Download Practice Workbook

Download this practice workbook to exercise while you are reading this article.

Fill Cell with Color.xlsx

Conclusion

That’s the end of today’s session. I strongly believe that from now you may fill the cell with color based on percentage. If you have any queries or recommendations, please share them in the comments section below.

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4 Comments

Douglas Forman Apr 28, 2023 at 2:38 AM

Is there a way to use the Data Bars then when 100% is reached the color of the cell changes? Like having a checklist that each item is either a yes or no, then when the whole row is yes?

Countif(a2:j2″yes)/counta(a1:j1)
then conditional formatting…
??
- Reply
  Lutfor Rahman Shimanto May 2, 2023 at 1:02 PM
  Hello DOUGLAS FORMAN,
  
  Thanks for reaching out and sharing your exciting query. When a given condition is met, we can use data bars and conditional formatting to change the color of a cell at a time. I can help you with Excel VBA code that loops through the K column and applies your given formula. Latterly, it utilizes an If Conditional to format each cell. When iterating, if the cell contains 1, that means 100% “Yes” It formats the fill color of the cell as Green. On the other hand, it uses a Data Bars feature. To get a better understanding of the issue, I am going to share the Workbook used in exploring your problem.
  
  Excel VBA Code:
```
Sub DatabarAndConditionalFormatting()

    Dim lastRow As Long
    lastRow = ActiveSheet.Cells(Rows.Count, "B").End(xlUp).Row
    
    Dim rng As Range
    Set rng = Range("K2:K" & lastRow)
    
    For Each cell In rng
        cell.Formula = "=IFERROR(COUNTIF(B" & cell.Row & ":J" & cell.Row & ",""Yes"")/COUNTA($B$1:$J$1),0)"
        cell.NumberFormat = "0.00%"
        If cell.Value = 1 Then
            cell.Interior.Color = RGB(0, 255, 0)
        Else
            cell.FormatConditions.AddDatabar
            cell.FormatConditions(cell.FormatConditions.Count).ShowValue = True
            
             With cell.FormatConditions(1).BarColor
                .Color = 13012579
                .TintAndShade = 0
            End With
        End If
    Next cell

End Sub
```
  INPUT:
  
  OUTPUT:
  
  WORKBOOK: Data Bars And Conditional Formatting
  
  Feel free to contact us again with any other inquiries or concerns.
  
  Regards
  Lutfor Rahman Shimanto
  ExcelDemy
sjoerd Nov 19, 2023 at 7:04 PM

can you do this with vertical databars.
or cells
I am looking to fill a cell (or better a range of cells) partially vertically (based on percentages)
See it as a tank filling with liquid
I managed to do it with sparklines in a range of cells, but then not the entire range is filled (there are white spaces on the side visible)
- Reply
  Aniruddah Alam Nov 20, 2023 at 4:40 PM
  
  Hi Sjoerd,
  
  Thanks for reaching out to us. Unfortunately, Conditional Formatting cannot create a vertical progress bar. But, using Sparkline can help you achieve your goal. You mentioned using Sparkline, but we didn’t understand what you meant by “not the entire range is filled.” Could you please clarify that?
  
  Here’s a sample picture of a vertical progress bar that we created using Sparkline.
  
  Were you referring to the extra space on the two sides of the column, as marked in the picture? If so, we are currently unaware of any methods to eliminate the space. Please let us know your thoughts.
  
  Regards
  Aniruddah
  Team Exceldemy

How to Fill Cell with Color Based on Percentage in Excel (6 Methods)

Fill Cell with Color Based on Percentage in Excel: 6 Methods

1. Using Formula to Fill Cell with Color Based on Percentage

2. Fill Cell with Color Based on Cell Value in Excel

3. Using ‘Greater Than’ Option to Fill Cell with Color Based on Percentage

4. ‘Text That Contains’ Option to Fill Cell with Color in Excel

5. Using ‘Top/Bottom’ Rules Option

6. Fill Cell with Color Using ‘Data Bars’ Option in Excel

💬 Things to Remember

Conclusion

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