Course Description
Conditional formatting is one of the most powerful, and yet sometimes most frustrating, features in Microsoft Excel. In this course, Excel expert David H. Ringstrom, CPA, delves deep into the nuances of conditional formatting. Techniques will range from simple color coding to sophisticated techniques such as highlighting every other row or formatting a set of cells based on amounts in other cells.
David demonstrates every technique at least twice: first, on a PowerPoint slide with numbered steps, and second, in the subscription-based Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) version of Excel. David draws your attention to any differences in the older versions of Excel (2021, 2019, 2016 and earlier) during the presentation as well as in his detailed handouts. David also provides an Excel workbook that includes most of the examples he uses during the course.
Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based product that provides new feature updates as often as monthly. Conversely, the perpetual licensed versions of Excel have feature sets that don't change. Perpetual licensed versions have year numbers, such as Excel 2021, Excel 2019, and so on.
Who should attend:
Users who work with large data sets in Excel and want to learn ways to streamline their formatting tasks.
Level: Intermediate
Topics covered:
- Avoiding frustration by understanding the nuances between Enter and Edit modes
- Color-coding date ranges with conditional formatting
- Color-coding the top ten (or however many you wish) amounts within a column of numbers with Conditional Formatting
- Comparing two techniques for determining if Conditional Formatting has been applied to a worksheet and, if so, where
- Creating an instant heat mapping with the Color Scales conditional formatting
- Enlivening staid lists of numbers with the Data Bars conditional formatting
- Gaining control of long lists of data by filtering instead of sorting
- Highlighting amounts greater than a specified amount with Conditional Formatting
- Identifying cells that contain specific text
- Identifying duplicates in a list using Conditional Formatting
- Pasting a table as a raw list elsewhere in a workbook
- Removing Conditional Formatting when it’s no longer needed within a spreadsheet
Learning objectives:
- State which menu the Conditional Formatting command appears on in Excel
- Describe the purpose of the Reapply command in Excel
- Recall which Conditional Formatting feature fills cells with color sized commensurate with the underlying cell values
Review our course policies and procedures page for further information