applying conditional formatting to emtpy cells in a spreadsheet

[Gail]

I am looking for a way to apply conditional formatting to cells that are
blank in a spreadsheet, but I don't know how to represent a blank cell - I
have tried " " and "" with no luck. I am applying two conditions to an
entire column - one that says if the value is not equal to "Yes" (there can
be any number of alternate values in the cell) - then fill with red, I want
the second condition to be that if the cell is blank then no fill. The end
result I am looking for is that values of Yes and blank cells will not have
the conditional formatting applied - all others will be colored red. Maybe
I'm going about it backward.

Can this be done?

Thanks for any insights,
Gail

 

[Barb Reinhardt]

In the condition try

=ISBLANK(A1)

 

[Pete_UK]

You can combine both these requirements into one conditional format.
Highlight all the cells you want this to apply to, and click on Format
| Conditional Formatting. In the CF dialogue box choose Formula Is
rather than Cell Value Is, and then enter this formula:

=AND(A1<>"Yes",A1<>"")

then click the Format button and choose your background colour of Red,
then OK your way out.

This assumes that the first cell highlighted is A1 - just change this
to suit your set up, and the formula will automatically adjust to suit
the other cells.

Hope this helps.

Pete

 

[Gail]

Worked Perfectly - thank you so very much!

Do you know if there is somewhere on the Microsoft site that I can learn
more about formulas and how they work? I am finding myself in these
situations more and more often, and I just don't know much more than the very
basics about formulas.

 

[T. Valko]

If you're starting out with the default fill (which is "no fill", cells have
a white background) then you don't need to format for that.

So, what you need to do is check that the cell has *some* entry and that
entry is not "Yes".

Let's assume the range of interest is A1:A10
Select the range A1:A10
Goto the menu Format>Conditional Formatting
Select the Formula Is option
Enter this formula in the little box on the right:

=AND(A1<>"",A1<>"yes")

Click the format button
Select the desired style(s)
OK out

Cells that contain formulas that return formula blanks will not be
formatted.

 

[Gail]

Thank you!

In the condition try

=ISBLANK(A1)

 

[Pete_UK]

Glad to hear that, Gail - thanks for feeding back.

The newsgroups that you have posted into have a vast amount of free
advice on Conditional Formatting and many other aspects of using Excel
- just browse through these to increase your knowledge.

Pete