Negative nubers turn to black in Conditional Formating

[johnny1r]

Hello and thanks for looking at my question! I am using Excel 2016 and am trying to get Conditional Formatting to give negative numbers and only negative numbers to show in red type. Numbers on Worksheet are formatted red for negative.
A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 F1 G1
10 5 -10 -5 -3 5 3
There are 2 conditions to each cell starting in B1, 1) B1 < A1 should get Red background, Black Type. 2) B1 > A1 you should get Green background and Black Type. Font color is set as automatic. The result in B1 is, Red background/ Black Type. C1 result should be red/red, D1 result should be green background/red type and so on. What I get is negative numbers in black. If I format in conditional formatting, numbers with negative numbers in red, the result is black number with no minus sign.
My eyes aren't what they used to be and it's easier to see red numbers than a minus sign for me.
I am an Excel retired home user and have been trying now for days and hope there is a solution, Thank You. John

 

[Rick Rothstein]

Instead of using Conditional Formatting, why not simply Custom Format the cells using this Type pattern...

[Red][<0]General;General

 

[LFKim2018]

Instead of using Conditional Formatting, why not simply Custom Format the cells using this Type pattern...

[Red][<0]General;General

Pardon my intrusion,
How do you do the above?
where do I put it?
many thanks

 

[Rick Rothstein]

Pardon my intrusion,
How do you do the above?
where do I put it?
many thanks

Select the cell or cells you want to have this format, right-click the selection and select "Format Cells" from the popup menu that appears, select "Custom" from the "Category" list, copy/paste what I posted in to the field labeled "Type" and finish off by clicking the "OK" button.

 

[jtakw]

Instead of using Conditional Formatting, why not simply Custom Format the cells using this Type pattern...

[Red][<0]General;General

Hi,

Doesn't the native "Number" cell format do the same?

 

[LFKim2018]

Mr. Rothstein
Thank you very very much

 

[LFKim2018]

Mr. jtakw
I think you're right...
thanks

 

[johnny1r]

Thank You Rick but how do I get the red or green fill to see if the cell went up or down in value?

 

[Rick Rothstein]

Thank You Rick but how do I get the red or green fill to see if the cell went up or down in value?

I am not sure what you are asking here. Your original question was about font color, but here you are saying something about a color fill. Assuming you meant the font color like in your original post... basically, you would put whatever formula you needed in the cells with this format and if the formula returned a negative number, then the Custom Format that I posted would display that negative value in a red font, otherwise it would display a positive formula result in the default black font color.

 

[Rick Rothstein]

Doesn't the native "Number" cell format do the same?

Not exactly. Yes, for whole numbers, but not for floating point numbers. The format I posted displays the number with whatever number of decimal places it has... the Number format displays all numbers to a set number of decimal places (selected by the person formatting the cell).