4 18 Conditional Formatting With Formulas Defining Custom Rules

Excel Formulas can be used to define custom rules. The rules can then be used to create conditional formats. ABSOLUTELY ANY conditional format visualization can be created using the techniques taught in this lesson.

In the tutorial you will highlight an entire row, rather than a single cell within a row, based upon the value in one of the row’s cells. This cannot be done without a custom formula-driven conditional format.

At the end of the lesson an alternative (and very fast) solution is presented to solve the problem posed in this lesson. This requires an understanding of Mixed Cell References. Mixed Cell References were taught earlier in: 3-13: Understand mixed cell references (A&1, $A1).

This is the last of four conditional format tutorials and I recommend that you work through all four in sequence if you are new to Conditional Formatting. The lessons are:

Lesson 4-15: Use Excel Conditional Formatting based on Dates and Values
Lesson 4-16: Advanced Conditional Formatting Using the Rules Manager
Lesson 4-17: Insert Data Bars, Color Scales and Icon Sets into Excel cells.
Lesson 4-18: Conditional Formatting with Formulas - Defining Custom Rules

As with all video lessons from The Smart Method®, there's a sample file download link at the beginning of the video to enable you to work along with the lesson.

This video comes from the "Making Your Workbooks Look Professional" session (Session 4 in our YouTube Excel Essential Skills free video training course).

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