MrExcel.com - Your One Stop for Excel Tips & Solutions

2 Questions: Conditional formatting, and "Trend" vs. "Growth"

Posted by Lori D on October 11, 2001 5:51 AM

1. Is there a way that if a cell meets a certain criteria, the entire row can be conditionally formatted?

2. If I want to forecast material usage based on what we used this time last year, should I use the Trend or Growth function? Or is there something better I should use?

Thanks in advance!

Posted by Dan on October 11, 2001 9:20 AM

1. Yes, but you'll have to be more specific. If for instance you want the entire Column B to be in red text if the value in B1 is less than 10, then would do this: Highlight the column. Click on Format -> Conditional Formatting. Under the condition, select Formula Is. In the field to the right type =$B$1<10. Click on the format button and change the color to red.

2. I'm no statistician, but it sounds like you would use the Trend function. From what little I know Growth function is for exponential type of growth.

Posted by Aladin Akyurek on October 11, 2001 10:00 AM

See also:

See also: 1107.html

I concur with Dan (see his reply).

You need enough data points. If the growth is exponential, you can use GROWTH. If linear, use TREND.

I'd also suggest as a possible approach transforming your data points by taking their logarithms or square roots then applying TREND to the transformed set.

Aladin

Posted by Lori D on October 11, 2001 10:14 AM

Thanks, worked great!

1107.html