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Niclas Johansson's avatar
Niclas Johansson
Brass Contributor
Apr 07, 2018
Solved

Assign color to specific numbers

Hello all, 

I`m a new member in this forum and this is my first post here.

I use excel more and more in my day job and have discovered that excel is a very powerful tool with tons of functionality that can be used in various ways.

I try to learn as I go along within excel. 

 

No to my question this time:

How can I assign colors that I choice to specific numbers in excel? 

1 equals green, 2 equals blue etc... so every time a user press 1 in any cell within the specific sheet the background color will change according the color assigned to the specific number.

 

Hopes this makes sense, and that someone are able to help. 

Attached a very simple example file to help explain what I want to achieve. This is basically for my learning howto do it.

 

BR 

Niclas

  • Haytham Amairah's avatar
    Haytham Amairah
    Apr 07, 2018

    Hi Niclas,

     

    You can do that with another technique along with the Conditional Formatting.

     

    After you finish the previous steps and apply the colors to the numbers:

    • Select the range of numbers.
    • Click Ctrl+1 to open the Format Cells dialog box.
    • From the Number tab, select Custom category.
    • In the Type box, type double quotation mark twice "" and then hit OK.

     

6 Replies

  • Haytham Amairah's avatar
    Haytham Amairah
    Silver Contributor

    Hi Niclas,

     

    Welcome to Microsoft Excel Community!

     

    There is a powerful tool in Excel called (Conditional Formatting), through this tool you can achieve what you asking for in the following steps:

    • Select the range (for example A1:B5) that you want to assign the colors to it.
    • Go to Home >> Styles >> Conditional Formatting >> Highlight Cells Rules >> Equal To.
    • In Equal To dialog box put the number and assign the color that you want to it, then click OK.
    • Do the same steps for each number.

     

    I hope this helps you

    • David_Mou's avatar
      David_Mou
      Copper Contributor

      Haytham Amairah 

      Hi,

      Unfortunately when i tried this more than 1 time the function is no longer available.

      I tried it and it work more or less perfect, but just for the first time. 

      Is it something that´s wrong with my excel or is it a setting?

      Thanks fro your time

    • Niclas Johansson's avatar
      Niclas Johansson
      Brass Contributor

      Hello Haytham,

      First of all, thanks alot for your help.

       

      An additional thing tho.

      Is it possible to achieve that the numbers actually disappears in the actual cell? So only the color is visible? 

      Br

      Niclas

      • Haytham Amairah's avatar
        Haytham Amairah
        Silver Contributor

        Hi Niclas,

         

        You can do that with another technique along with the Conditional Formatting.

         

        After you finish the previous steps and apply the colors to the numbers:

        • Select the range of numbers.
        • Click Ctrl+1 to open the Format Cells dialog box.
        • From the Number tab, select Custom category.
        • In the Type box, type double quotation mark twice "" and then hit OK.

         

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