- [Instructor] You can change the color of a cell
based on its values.
Why would you want to do that?
Well, you can very quickly see trends.
You can also see places where the data
doesn't match what you're expecting it to be.
Let's create some conditional formatting,
and I've gone back to this very basic
spreadsheet so that you can very quickly,
and easily see
what conditional formatting can really do.
Let's take column D here.
I have all my product sales for these units.
I'm going to highlight this data.
And in the home ribbon tab,
I'll click on conditional formatting.
Now it comes with some very quick trends
that we can see.
For example, highlighting cells.
I can see data that's greater than
a certain amount, less than or equal to
if I'm looking for text or values.
Text that contains a certain value,
a date occurring at a certain time,
and I can even very quickly
find duplicate values.
Let's say I want to highlight cells
that are greater than 1,000 units sold.
I can also change the color.
I don't want a red fill.
I feel like this is a positive thing.
This is great sales,
so I'll change it to a green fill.
I'll click okay.
And now I can very quickly see my big sellers.
To remove a conditional formatting at any time,
highlight your data.
Click conditional formatting again,
hover your mouse over clear rules,
and from here,
I'll select clear rules from selected cells,
because you may have different rules
for different columns.
If I go back to conditional formatting,
I can also hover my mouse
over top and bottom rules.
This way I can see my lowest sellers
or my best sellers.
For example, I'll click the top 10 items,
and in this case,
I know I don't even have 10 items,
so I just want to see my top three items.
And again, I'll choose a green color.
And here they are.
I can see other things.
For example, the top 10%,
and I can change that percentage rate,
even the bottom percent.
I can do a lot more than that.
I can see data bars with gradient fills,
color scales of values.
This is great for temperature ranges.
I can even see icon sets,
and I can set my own indicators
for dangerous values.
I can set trend arrows.
For example, this is the top value.
This is a lower one,
and this one's on its way up.
These are just very quick ways to skim your data.
Conditional formatting is very powerful,
especially when you start creating your own.
For example, if I click new rule,
I can format cells based on their values.
I can even use my own formula
to determine which cells to format.
Now the sky is the limit for what I can do.
For example, if I have text in a cell,
I can change the color of that cell,
change the background of it
if the amount of characters are above
a certain limit.
So let's say I need a sentence
that's at least 50 characters,
I can put in a formula to match that criteria.
So check out conditional formatting.
It's a great way to quickly skim
a column of data,
and see trends or places
that need your attention.