Conditional formatting in practice: make outliers stand out

Four useful rules

• Colour scales for trends such as sales heat;
• Data bars for in-cell ranking;
• Icon sets for red/amber/green status;
• Formula rules such as =$C2<$D2 to flag rows below target.

Steps

1. Select the range;
2. Home → Conditional Formatting → New Rule;
3. Pick a rule type, set the format, and stack more rules if needed.

Manage

Use Manage Rules to set priority and scope. Too many rules slow large sheets — keep three to five.