Mastering Conditional Formatting in Google Sheets

Conditional formatting is a powerful feature in Google Sheets that allows you to visually enhance your data by applying specific styles based on cell values. This tutorial will guide you through using conditional formatting to change cell colors dynamically, depending on the value of another cell.

Introduction

Imagine you have a spreadsheet where certain actions need to be highlighted if they meet particular criteria—for example, changing a cell’s background color when its corresponding data meets or exceeds a threshold. In this context, we’ll explore how to set up conditional formatting in Google Sheets using custom formulas to achieve dynamic and informative dashboards.

Basics of Conditional Formatting

Conditional formatting applies styles—such as colors, fonts, or borders—to cells based on their values relative to other cell values or criteria you specify. This feature is useful for quickly identifying trends, outliers, and important data points.

Key Concepts:

Range: The group of cells that the conditional format will be applied to.
Criteria/Formula: The condition under which the formatting should be triggered.
Style: The visual change (e.g., background color) applied when conditions are met.

Setting Up Conditional Formatting

To apply conditional formatting based on another cell’s value, follow these steps:

Select the Target Range:
- Click and drag to highlight the cells you want to format. For instance, if you want to change the color of B5 depending on C5, select B5.
Open Conditional Formatting:
- Navigate to the menu bar and click on Format. From the dropdown, choose Conditional formatting.
Choose Custom Formula:
- In the conditional format rules panel, set the "Format cells if" option to "Custom formula is".
Enter Your Formula:
- Use a formula that defines your criteria. For example, to change B5‘s color based on C5, enter =C5>0.8. This checks if C5 is greater than 80%.
Set Formatting Style:
- Choose the desired background color (e.g., green for values above 80%).
Apply to a Range:
- Ensure that the "Range" field matches your selected cells (B5). You can expand this range by using something like B2:B if you want all similar conditions in column B.
Finalize with Done:
- Click "Done" to apply the rule.

Advanced Tips

Relative and Absolute References: Utilize $ signs to lock specific rows or columns within your formula, which is particularly useful for applying rules across multiple rows or columns uniformly.
- Example: =$B2>0.8*C2 applies the condition across all rows where B and C are in line.
Multiple Conditions: You can add multiple conditional formatting rules to a single range by clicking on "Add another rule". This allows for complex scenarios, such as using different colors for ranges above or below specific thresholds.
Applying to Rows/Columns: If your format depends on several columns (e.g., changing an entire row if one column meets the criteria), use ranges like A:D and formulas that reference fixed rows/columns appropriately.
- Example: To highlight a whole row based on a condition in column B, set the range as A2:D with the formula =$B2="Complete".

Practical Examples

Highlight Entire Rows: If you want to change the color of an entire row when B is "Completed", use:
- Custom Formula: =$B:$B="Completed"
- Range: A:D
Color Based on Date and User: For a table where each user has specific start and end dates, apply conditional formatting to highlight cells based on the date falling within that range.
- Example rule for user "foo":
```
=AND($A2="foo", D$1>=$B2, D$1<=$C2)
```
- Apply this to a cell range covering all dates and users (e.g., D2:G3).

Conclusion

By mastering conditional formatting in Google Sheets, you can create dynamic and visually appealing spreadsheets that automatically adjust based on your data. Whether highlighting important thresholds or indicating task completion statuses, these techniques empower you to convey information effectively at a glance.