Conditional Formatting

[shdawson]

Hi,


Have a column where a date is populated. I would prefer to use Conditial Formatting, aka extreme laziness, to format that cell with a color if it is not empty.

Messing with Conditial Formatting, cannot get the whole column to format. Would not want to put a lot of time into dealing with individual cells, would just let it go.

Is there a simple approach to implement Conditional Formatting for a column for cells that are not empty?


Thank You,
S

 

[manojrf]

Hi,

I understand from your question that you need to colour a cell if it is not empty,right ? Select the whole column and select conditional formatting. On it , select "Cell value is" - "not equal to" - and enter ="". Select the color you need and that's it.
I hope it works.

Regards, Manuel.

 

[shdawson]

Yeah, tried just that. It did not result in coloring the cells.

Why is that, do you suppose? I am a bit puzzled on why a simple formula like this would not do the deed.


Thank You,
S

 

[manojrf]

This has to work. I tried this and it works. Did you select the colour by clicking "Format" button on the conditional formatting screen ?

 

[shdawson]

It makes the entire column the said color.

There are many cells that are indeed blank.


Hmmm.......

 

[johnmeyer]

Try downloading this sample spreadsheet. I posted it for someone else yesterday:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1561578/Selection%20example.xls

Note how it highlights an entire row whenever you put anything in any cell in column A. Go to the conditional formatting dialog and you'll see how it works. In this case it changes the highlight if the cell is not blank, rather than if it IS blank. Just change it to do the opposite.

 

[shdawson]

OK, that is pretty slick! I will mess with this and somehow get this running.


THanks for the offering.


Kindly,
S