Color in Excel

Color in Excel (Table of Contents)

• Introduction to Color in Excel
• Ways to Change Background Color

Introduction to Color in Excel

Colors are generally used to highlight a group of cells in Excel. The excel contains the index of 56 colors. By using conditional formatting, we can put some conditions and apply different colors for different conditions if we want to change the background color of the cell in Excel. We usually select the cells and click the Fill color option; then, the background color will get changed if we want to change the cell’s background colour with the cell automatically.

Ways to Change Background Color

There are two ways to change the background color.

1. Change the color of the cell based on the current value

• Here the background color of the cell changes when the cell value in the Excel changes.
• For example, we have taken the following dataset. we want the USD Amount greater than 10,000 as blue color and remaining red color.

• Select the range of the cells which we want to change. Then go to the Home tab, go to the styles and select the conditional formatting.

• Now click on the new rules.
• A dialog appears stating the selection of the row. Select the format of the cells based on the cell value.

• Now give the range of values which are greater than 10,000 and select the color as blue color.

• Now click on the format option.

• A color box appears and makes the Pattern Color as Automatic, so Select color as blue and click on OK.

• We can observe that the sample option is blue because we have selected the blue color.

• We can observe the selected color in the format option. And click the Ok option.

• Now we can use the same procedure for selecting the color for less value. A dialog appears stating the selection of the row. Select the format of the cells based on the cell value. A dialog appears stating the selection of the row. Select the format of the cells based on the cell value. Now give the range of values which are less than 10,000 and select the color as red color.

• The color box appears and makes the pattern as automatic and Select color like blue and click OK.
• The output will be as follows.

2. Change the background color of special cells

• This is another way of color the background of the particular cell. First, go to the home tab, then select the conditional formatting.

• Select the new rules.

• The formatting dialog box appears to click on the cells which need to format, which is at the end of the dialog box.

• Click on the arrow option at the right end.
• Write the new formatting rule using the keyword Is Blank condition. This Is Blank is used to highlighting the background cells which are empty.

• Click on the Format option. And select the blue color.

• Click on the Ok button.

• The output will be as follows.

 3. Sort the Excel by it Color

• Sorting is one of the methods to select a particular color. First, select the cells, right-click on them, select the sort option, and then select the highest value by color.

• Click the ok button.
• And Filter the color by its color.

• And the output will be as follows.

Change the cell color based on the current value.

• First, go to the home tab, select the Find and select option, and select the Find option.

• Select the value which we want to select. Click on the Find all option.

• Click on the values range which we want the cells we want to highlight.
• Click on the Select by value option. And select the Greater in the list.
• Click on the range of the cells we want to highlight. Click on the select option.
• Now select the color as blue for the greater value.
• And the output will be as follows.

 Conditional Formatting in Excel

• Conditional formatting is generally used to color data bars and icons in the cells.
• To do the conditional formatting in Excel, first, we take the required data set.
• Then go to the Home tab and select the conditional formatting option ad put the desired rule which we want to specify, and mention the color which we want to give to the cells of the particular condition.
• Then a dialog box appears on the screen then simply gives the values we want a particular condition so that the color will be applied successfully.
• Now select the formatting styles from the drop-down. Here we select the color for the condition. Then click the OK. The conditional formatting will be applied to all the cells at a time. This is one way of adding colors to the cells.

Things to Remember About Color in Excel

• The colors in excel play a major role in highlighting a particular range of cells.
• Here we generally use the two approaches like make the background color cells based on the value, and another way is to change the background of special cells.
• The excel contains the index of 56 colors. By using conditional formatting, we can put some conditions and apply different colors for different conditions.
• We can also sort the colors based on the colors.
• We can highlight the empty cells with the colors.
• Through cells, we can highlight the greater values and the lower value with different colors.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to Color in Excel. Here we discuss How to use Color in Excel along with practical examples and a downloadable excel template. You can also go through our other suggested articles –

1. Alternate Row Color Excel
2. Excel Sum by Color
3. Count Colored Cells In Excel
4. Excel Sort by color