Conditional formating - apply on more cells

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Biljana - Nov 30, 2008 at 07:18 PM
 Raj - Aug 30, 2017 at 10:13 AM
Hello,
i'm not so familiar with conditional formatting, so I would like to ask something:
I'm making a doc where Column A has number values, column B also numbers, of rank positions. Conditional formating of cell in column B would be: if number is greater than number in cell A, colour it Red, and if it is less than number in cell A, colour it green (rank position dropped down). Now, I managed that, but since the document has lots of rows, how do I apply the formating on the other cells in the column? If I make copy/paste to them, formatting doesn't apply on the whole column since it is not a function, but a cell format. And do I have to do the formating every day for every next column ?

3 responses

sheryljohnson Posts 5 Registration date Saturday November 1, 2008 Status Member Last seen December 15, 2008 4
Updated on Nov 29, 2018 at 03:32 PM
The "secret" is to make the formula with "relative referencing", hence, if your formula looks like this:
=$B$2>$A$2 


then remove the $ sign before the row number, so it will look like this:
=$B2>$A2 


With this, you actually don't need to copy the conditional formatting. You can select an entire range before applying it, and insert the formula as if you selected only the first cell at the top. Excel will know to apply the correct formulas to all the other cells in the range (assuming the range is a column).
Or you can apply this formula to the first row, and copy it with the format painter.

Good luck!
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Hi!!! Your guidance was really helpful... saved on a lot of effort!!! Thanks a ton!
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Your replay is very very helpful. I had been looking for the solution. Thank you.
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