Conditional Formating - Highlight Differences Across Multiple Columns

kijjet

New Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2014
Messages
1
I have been searching and searching and I can't seem to find anything that works. I've tried what feels like 800 different ways, based on other threads I found, but none seem to work. Any help you can offer is appreciated!

Background:
I am using Excel 2010. I want to compare two different versions of a quote (ie: "V1" & "V2", V for version) and highlight any differences in product code and price. It is further complicated because product codes are often added or deleted from "Version 2" of the quote, making the rows not line up correctly. (Because I don't know a better way), I've created a macro that does a simple "Insert" on any cells I have selected (ie: Right Click > Insert...). That allows me to realign the two versions. However inserting new cells does a number on any conditional formatting I have applied. I would like help determining the best way to highlight differences in the data, that will still work (or can easily be reapplied with a macro) after the data is realigned.

Here is some sample data:

[TABLE="width: 1000"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD]V1_Product[/TD]
[TD]V1_Product_Price[/TD]
[TD]V1_Service_Price[/TD]
[TD]V2_Product[/TD]
[TD]V2_Product_Price[/TD]
[TD]V3_Service_Price[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Console[/TD]
[TD]100[/TD]
[TD]100[/TD]
[TD]Console[/TD]
[TD]150[/TD]
[TD]100[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Drives[/TD]
[TD]100[/TD]
[TD]100[/TD]
[TD]Drives[/TD]
[TD]100[/TD]
[TD]50[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Nodes[/TD]
[TD]100[/TD]
[TD]100[/TD]
[TD]Nodes[/TD]
[TD]100[/TD]
[TD]100[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Cables[/TD]
[TD]100[/TD]
[TD]100[/TD]
[TD]Software[/TD]
[TD]100[/TD]
[TD]100[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]Cables[/TD]
[TD]100[/TD]
[TD]100[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]

In my current setup, I would manually realign V1 so the Cables entry & associated prices would be in A6:C6, A5:C5 would be blank (newly added) cells. I would love to know if there's a non-manual way to realign (without sorting because the order of the Product is significant). I would also like to know how to conditionally format the columns so any differences between V1 and V2 are highlighted. In the example above, I would expect to see cells B2 and E2 highlighted and C3 and F3. Also, once V1 was realigned so the Cables entry was in cells A6:C6, I would expect to see cells D5:F5 highlighted to show that Software is a newly added item.

Thanks in advance for any guidance you can give.
 

Excel Facts

What is the shortcut key for Format Selection?
Ctrl+1 (the number one) will open the Format dialog for whatever is selected.

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