6.

Advanced Formatting

In this lesson, you will learn...

1. To use conditional formatting to display cells differently based on their values.

2. To quickly format tables using styles.

3. To format cells using styles.

Applying Conditional Formatting

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Conditional formatting enables you to automatically draw attention to interesting, exciting, concerning, unusual, or
other data. Uses of conditional formatting include:

1. Highlighting the highest or lowest numbers in a report.

2. Highlighting numbers above or below a certain number.

3. Highlighting specific values with specific colors.

4. Drawing attention to specific dates.

5. Highlighting cells that contain specific text.

6. Highlighting numbers within a certain range.

7. Visually displaying the values within cells.

Conditional formatting functionality includes:

1. Highlight Cells Rules . Highlight numbers greater than, less than, between, or equal to specific numbers.
Also highlight cells that include specific text, dates with a specified range, and duplicate values.

2. Top/Bottom Rules . Highlight the top or bottom X or X% results in a data set, or numbers that are above or
below average.

3. Data Bars . Visually display values by filling portions of cells with colors based on the values.

4. Color Scales . Visually display values by associating cell colors with the values in the cells.

5. Icon Sets . Visually display values using icons.

6. Formatting Based on Values in Other Cells . Formatting can be based on the value within the cell itself or
on the value within another cell.

To apply conditional formatting:

1. Choose the cell or cells to which you wish to apply conditional formatting.

2. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click the Conditional Formatting command:
3. Select the rule or format you wish to apply by clicking on it:

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4. If necessary, fill out the requested information in the dialog box that appears.

Watch and follow along as your instructor shows you some of the many ways you can use
conditional formatting. YA YA
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Exercise 20 Using Conditional Formatting

15 to 25 minutes

In this exercise, you will practice using conditional formatting in a number of different ways.

1. Open Conditional Formatting.xlsx from your Excel2016.2/Exercises folder.

2. In Sheet1, in the Listing Price column, highlight the most expensive 20% of houses using yellow fill with dark
yellow text.

3. In Sheet1, in the Town column, highlight all cells containing "Fayetteville" using light red fill.

4. In Sheet1, in the Square Feet column, use blue gradient fill to visually demonstrate the size of each house.

5. In Sheet1, in the Bedrooms column, highlight all cells showing 4 bedrooms using a red border.

6. In Sheet1, in the Bathrooms column, use icon indicators to draw attention to houses that have 1 or 4
bathrooms.

7. In Sheet2, in the Date Due column, highlight all past dates in light red fill with dark red text, current dates in
yellow fill with dark yellow text, and future dates in green fill with dark green text. Tip: When creating the rules,
instead of entering today's actual date, enter "=today()" (do not enter the quotation marks).
Exercise Solution

1. In Sheet1 in the Listing Price column, highlight the most expensive 20% of houses using yellow fill with dark
yellow text.

A. Select column B.

B. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click Conditional Formatting , Top/Bottom Rules , and then
Top 10%... :

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C. In the Top 10% dialog box, increase the % to "20", select

Yellow Fill with Dark Yellow Text, and click OK :

2. In Sheet1, in the Town column, highlight all cells containing "Fayetteville" using light red fill.

A. Select column C.

B. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click Conditional Formatting ,

Highlight Cells Rules , and then Equal To... :

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C. In the Equal To dialog box, enter "Fayetteville", select Light Red Fill , and click OK :

3. In Sheet1, in the Square Feet column, use blue gradient fill to visually demonstrate the size of each house.

A. Select column D.

B. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, .

. click Conditional Formatting , Data Bars , and then under

Gradient Fill select Blue Data Bar :

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4. In Sheet1, in the Bedrooms column, highlight all cells showing 4 bedrooms with a red border.

A. Select column E.

B. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click Conditional Formatting ,

Highlight Cells Rules , and then Equal To... :

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5. In Sheet1, in the Bathrooms column, use icon indicators to draw attention to houses that have 1 or 4
bathrooms.

A. Select column F.

B. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click Conditional Formatting , Icon Sets , and then select one
of the options under Indicators :

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6. In Sheet2, in the Date Due column, highlight all past dates in light red fill with dark red text, current dates in
yellow fill with dark yellow text, and future dates in green fill with dark green text.

A. Select cells B2:B9.

B. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click Conditional Formatting ,

 Highlight Cells Rules , and then Less Than... :

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C. In the Less Than dialog box, enter today's date, select

Light Red Fill with Dark Red Text , and click OK :

D. . click Conditional Formatting ,

On the Home tab, in the Styles group,

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E. In the Equal To dialog box, enter today's date, select Yellow Fill with Dark Yellow Text , and click OK :

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G. In the Greater Than dialog box, enter today's date, select

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Working with Styles

Styles can be applied both to tables and to individual or groups of cells. Styles can also be applied to charts and
illustrations, though applying styles to charts and illustrations is not covered in this lesson.

Applying Styles to Tables

Converting Data to a Table

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If your data is not already formatted as a table, then convert it to a table:

1. Select the cells you wish to convert to a table. If you select just one cell, then Excel will guess which other
cells you wish to include and will ask you to verify.

2. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click the Format as Table command:

3. Select one of the options from the drop-down list:

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4. In the Format As Table dialog box, verify which cells contain the data for the table and click OK :

Note: Lists can also be converted to tables using the Table command on the Insert tab. This is covered in the
lesson on working with lists.

Changing the Style Applied to Your Table

When you select a cell in a table, the Table Tools Design tab appears:

To change the style applied to your table:

1. Select any cell in your table.

2. Click the More arrow in the Table Styles group to see all the styles available:

3. Move your mouse over the many different styles available in the Table Styles group to see what your table
will look like if you select that style:
4. Select one of the styles by clicking on it.

Applying Styles to Cells

To apply a style to a cell or group of cells:

1. Select the cell or cells to which you wish to apply a style.

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4. Select one of the options from the drop-down list by clicking on it.

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Exercise 21 Working with Styles
5 to 15 minutes

In this exercise, you will convert data to a table, change the format of the table, and format cells.

1. Open Styles.xlsx from your Webucator/Excel2016.2/Exercises folder.

2. Convert the data in cells A3:E8 to a table using one of the Light styles.

3. Change the format of the table to one of the Dark styles.

4. Apply a cell style to cells A1:C1.

Exercise Solution

1. Convert the data in cells A3:E8 to a table, using one of the Light styles.

A. Select a cell in the range A3:E8:

B. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click the Format as Table command:

C. Select one of the Light style options

Y from the drop-down list:

D. In the Format as Table dialog box, verify which cells contain the data for the table and click OK :

2. Change the format of the table to one of the Dark styles.

A. Select a cell in the range A3:E8:

 B. Click the More arrow in the Table Styles group:

C. Select one of the Dark style options from the list:

3. Apply a cell style to cells A1:C1.

A. Select cells A1:C1.

B. On the HOME tab, in the Styles group, click the Cell Styles command:

C. Choose a style from the styles available by clicking on it:

Creating and Modifying Templates

You can save a workbook as a template to use in the future. To create a custom template:

1. Select the File menu tab and then click Save As . Navigate to where you want to save the template by
clicking Browse .

2. In the Save As dialog box, from the Save as type drop-down list, select one of the template options.
3. Click Save to save the template (by default, it is saved in the following location: C:\Users\user
name\Documents\Custom Office Templates).

Modify a Custom Template

To modify a custom template that you have created:

1. Select the File menu tab and then click Open . Navigate to the C:\Users\user name\Documents\Custom
Office Templates folder.

2. Open the template you wish to modify and make changes.

3. From Backstage view , select Save As, and then from the Save as type drop-down list, select one of the
template options.

4. Click Save to save the changes.

Conclusion

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In this lesson, you learned to use conditional formatting .
to display cells differently based on their values, to quickly
format tables using styles, and to format cells using styles.