On the ‘Home’ tab in Microsoft Excel, the ‘Conditional Formatting’ button allows you to set rules for
individual cells and cell arrays.
The ‘Conditional Formatting’ menu has options for highlighting, Top/Bottom, Data Bars, Color Scales,
along with options for creating, clearing, and managing rules.
The first conditional formatting option we are going to analyze is the ‘Highlight’ with ‘Text that
Contains…’ option. This option allows students to write in a word or phrase into a particular cell and
immediately be notified if the answer they have provided is correct. It further allows students to
respond to question prompts by selecting an appropriate cell within a worksheet that contains the
desired text, such as a bulleted list. Multiple conditional formatting rules can apply to a single cell or cell
array.
A standard stoplight, red/yellow/green rule is built into the highlighting options, but additional
formatting options can be customized. To manage conditional formatting rules, return to the drop-down
menu, select ‘Manage Rules…’ and click the ‘Edit Rule…’ button.
Rules for managing cells containing text include ‘contains,’ ‘not containing,’ ‘beginning with,’ or ‘ending
with.’ In order to have a cell turn both red and green, you need to have two rules: one rule using
‘containing’ and formatted to turn the cell green; one rule using ‘not containing’ and formatted to turn
the cell red.