Forum Discussion
Help with Conditional Formatting
Hi all,
I'm relatively new to the more powerful uses of excel, and I'm having difficulty with some conditional formatting I was trying to do. I'm in catering, and we have a spreadsheet that tracks upcoming events--I was exploring conditional formatting so that the cells in a row are colored automatically based on who the catering planner is for that event. Based on what I'm seeing, the formula for this is pretty simple--=$[Column Letter][Starting Row Number]="[Value]"
The only problem is, it's not working--and the only row I notice it working for is the pinned first row, which shouldn't have any of those values. Do pinned/merged rows interfere with the function of conditional formatting? Am I just not seeing something obvious?
Thank you in advance for your time/help; if it would be helpful, I can also upload a copy of the sheet with identifying data cleared.
(this was being primarily done in Sheets, but I couldn't make it work in Excel, either)
**edit** I mistakenly wrote & instead of $ when creating this post
This is what the rule looks like:
The 'Applies to' range starts in row 1, but the formula refers to cell I2. It should refer to the first row of the range, so it should be
=$I1="Peyton"
You can change this by selecting Conditional Formatting > Manage Rules... on the Home tab of the ribbon, then clicking Edit Rule...
OK your way out when done.
The rule then works as intended:
(I removed all manually applied fill coloring to better demonstrate the result)
7 Replies
- me too
If you could upload or attach a copy of the workbook, that would be helpful.
HansVogelaar here is the link to the Sheets copy--new to the site and figuring out how to attach the excel file
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dySeuuAsYYQatDJOcU61IHkjaYgzh7dQfVRNvh2jTPM/edit?usp=sharing
This is what the rule looks like:
The 'Applies to' range starts in row 1, but the formula refers to cell I2. It should refer to the first row of the range, so it should be
=$I1="Peyton"
You can change this by selecting Conditional Formatting > Manage Rules... on the Home tab of the ribbon, then clicking Edit Rule...
OK your way out when done.
The rule then works as intended:
(I removed all manually applied fill coloring to better demonstrate the result)
