Highlighting rows in Microsoft Excel Based on a cell value

For example :
Set the background color of Row 1 to Blue if the cell value of B1 is 5
Set the background color of Row 1 to Red if the cell value of B1 is 10
Set the background color of Row 1 to Orange if the cell value of B1 is 15

Following are the steps to highlight the entire row based on a cell value.

1. Select the entire Row (Row 1 in our case)
2. Go to Format –> Conditional Formatting
3. In Condition 1, Select “Formula is” from the first select box.
4. Enter “=IF($B1=5,1,0)” in second select box.
5. Click the “Format” button
6. Click on “Patterns” tab.
7. Select blue color.
8. Click ok
9. Click “Add” button
10. Follow steps 3-8, the only change is : in the formula enter 10 instead of 5 and select red color.
11. Click “Add button
12. Follow steps 3-8, the only change is : in the formula enter 15 instead of 5 and select orange color.
13. Done

If you want to apply it all rows in the sheet.

1. Complete the above steps. This will setup first row
2. Select first row
3. Click on “Format Painter” icon from your Standard Toolbar
4. Select all the rows on which you want to apply Step 1’s formatting.
5. Done!

One Response to “Highlighting rows in Microsoft Excel Based on a cell value”

  1. Chris says:

    I am looking at your response. I cannot follow, I am using 2007, and when I click the conditional formatting button, I dont see any options for selecting “formula is”. Basically, I have same question as above - worksheet has 300 rows. Col A has a list box with 6 status values. When I select “Complete” in Col A, I want to change A1:AB1 to Green, when I select “Cancelled”, row selection turns red, and so on for each of the 6 status values. I figured out how to get the cell with the “Complete” value to turn Green, but not the entire row range I want.

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