Learn how to automatically change the appearance of cells in Google Sheets based on specific rules and conditions. Conditional formatting helps you visualize data, highlight important information, and spot trends at a glance.
Click and drag to select the cells, range, or entire columns you want to apply formatting to.
Navigate to the menu bar at the top and click Format, then select Conditional formatting. A sidebar will open on the right.
In the sidebar, ensure the correct range is listed under 'Apply to range'. Under 'Format rules', use the dropdown menu for 'Format cells if...' to choose a condition, such as 'Text contains...', 'Greater than...', or 'Date is before...'.
Under the 'Formatting style' section, select how you want the cells to look when the condition is met. You can choose a default style or customize the text color, background color, and font style (bold, italic, etc.).
Click the Done button to apply the rule. Your selected cells will now automatically format based on the condition you set.
Pro Tips for Conditional Formatting
For advanced formatting, select 'Custom formula is' from the rules dropdown. This allows you to use any Google Sheets formula that returns TRUE or FALSE, like `=$B2>50` to format an entire row based on a value in column B.
Instead of a single rule, click the 'Color scale' tab in the sidebar to apply a gradient. This is great for visualizing data ranges, like creating a heatmap for high and low values.
You can apply multiple rules to the same range of cells. Google Sheets will apply them in the order they are listed. The first rule that evaluates to true will be applied.
To edit or delete a rule, simply open the conditional formatting sidebar (Format > Conditional formatting), hover over the rule you want to change, and click on it to edit or click the trash icon to remove it.
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