Chapter 5: Conditional formatting basics
Exercise 24: Show trends with a color scale
Task
Apply a green-yellow-red color scale to sales by branch and month (higher is greener).
Moves 0 (target 1)12 difference(s) from the model
File
Font
Alignment
Number
Styles
Cells
A1Press and release Alt to show KeyTips (Windows). Ctrl + 1 opens Format Cells, Ctrl + Z undoes.
| A | B | C | D | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Branch | Apr | May | Jun | |
| 2 | New York | 120 | 135 | 150 | |
| 3 | Chicago | 90 | 80 | 110 | |
| 4 | Houston | 70 | 95 | 60 | |
| 5 | Seattle | 100 | 85 | 130 | |
| 6 | |||||
| 7 |
Apply a green-yellow-red color scale to sales by branch and month (higher is greener).
This drill is for computer screens. On a phone you can review the steps.
- Select B2:D5
- Home > Conditional Formatting > Color Scales (Alt → H → L → S)
- Choose Green - Yellow - Red Color Scale
Key takeaway
Color intensity shows where values are high and low across the table.
See conditional formatting for details.