Conditional formatting

Highlight cells that match a rule — duplicates, dates, thresholds, top N, blank rows. Every formula you can use as a Conditional Formatting rule.

12 pages · 12 how-to

How-to guides

Highlight duplicate cells automatically with Conditional Formatting using a COUNTIF rule — no formulas to copy manually.

Use Conditional Formatting with a simple greater-than rule to automatically color cells that exceed a threshold value.

Color the maximum value in a range automatically using a Conditional Formatting rule based on the MAX function.

Color the minimum value in a range using a Conditional Formatting rule built on the MIN function.

Use conditional formatting with ISBLANK to automatically highlight empty cells in your spreadsheet for easy visual identification.

Use conditional formatting with SEARCH or ISNUMBER(SEARCH()) to highlight any cell containing a specific word or phrase automatically.

Use conditional formatting with MOD and ROW to automatically apply alternating row colors for a banded, readable table layout.

Use conditional formatting with WEEKDAY to automatically highlight Saturday and Sunday dates in any calendar or date column.

Use conditional formatting with a mixed reference formula to highlight an entire row whenever a specific column's value meets your condition.

Use conditional formatting with PERCENTILE to automatically highlight the highest-performing values in a dataset — no manual sorting needed.

Use conditional formatting with COUNTIF to flag values in one column that do not appear in a reference list, revealing discrepancies instantly.

Use conditional formatting with ISERROR to automatically flag formula errors like #N/A, #DIV/0!, or #VALUE! across your spreadsheet.