Part I: Getting Started with Excel
FIGURE 5.17
Creating a conditional formatting rule based on a formula
- Click OK to close the New Formatting Rule dialog box.
Notice that the formula entered in step 4 contains a relative reference to the upper-left cell
in the selected range.
Generally, when entering a conditional formatting formula for a range of cells, you’ll use a
reference to the active cell, which is typically the upper-left cell in the selected range. One
exception is when you need to refer to a specific cell. For example, suppose that you select
range A1:B10 and you want to apply formatting to all cells in the range that exceed the
value in cell C1. Enter this conditional formatting formula:
=A1>$C$1
In this case, the reference to cell C1 is an absolute reference; it will not be adjusted for the
cells in the selected range. In other words, the conditional formatting formula for cell A2
looks like this:
=A2>$C$1
The relative cell reference is adjusted, but the absolute cell reference is not.
Conditional formatting formula examples
Each of these examples uses a formula entered directly into the New Formatting Rule dialog
box, after selecting the Use a Formula to Determine Which Cells to Format rule type. You
decide the type of formatting that you apply conditionally.
