How to Use Conditional Formatting in Microsoft Excel 2007

Microsoft Excel 2007 has a number of new and impressive features, one of which is enhancement to the conditional formatting function. There are many graphic interfaces as well as text formatting and cell formatting options available.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. 
    

   Some of the easiest functions are clearly listed in the Conditional Formatting bar under the Home tab. Highlight the cells you wish to format. Then select the option you wish to use. We will take a look at the first two options in the next few steps.

2. 
    

   (Option 1) Select the Conditional Formatting Tab. Then select the rule. The first two options will allow you to highlight cells based on certain criteria. For this example, we selected Top/Bottom rules and chose to highlight cells which are above the average for the selected criteria (Which is cells containing a # which is 5 or greater.)

3. 
    

   (Option 2) Select the Conditional Formatting Tab. Then select the rule. The second set of options allows you to attach a graphic based on the cell criteria. For this example, we selected Icon Sets and then assigned colored dots which are associated with the cell value. There are several different icon, color scale and bar chart options available.

4. 
    

   For advanced criteria, select New Rule under the Conditional Formatting bar. From here, there are many different criteria to choose from as seen in the example.

5. 
    

   In this example, we chose to put a strike through on all unique data. This is achieved by selecting the option (under new rule) of 'Format unique or duplicate values'. Change the value to unique. Hit the format button and select the strikethrough option. Press OK and this should result (see example).

6. 
    

   To remove formatting, select the 'Clear Rules' option. This will remove all rules for the selected criteria.

7. 
    

   If you have a lot of different rules within your sheet, you can view and edit them by selecting the manage rules option.

[SeventhSibling]

on 6/6/2008 This is a good feature to know to make spreadsheets standout, particularly for work shared with others. You can choose what you want to emphasize or simply make the numbers a little easier to read. Great job describing the feature!