Conditional formatting — Excel Course

Use rules to highlight exceptions and performance. Learn it step by step with guided practice on Excelquro.

Understand

Start with the business action, then choose the rule. A threshold can flag missed targets; duplicates can reveal data-quality problems; data bars show relative magnitude; color scales reveal gradients; icon sets provide compact signals. Formula-based rules are powerful because they can format an entire row from one logical condition.

Worked example

The formula compares Collection and Target for each row. Locking the columns lets the rule be applied across a selected row range while row numbers change.

=$C2<$B2

Follow along

1. Define the business exception in plain language.
2. Choose a threshold or formula rule.
3. Apply it to the correct range.
4. Test one known positive and one known negative case.
5. Add a second signal such as high DPD.
6. Review whether the visual is still readable when many rows are flagged.

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