Microsoft Office

Part III
Creating Charts and Graphics
FIGURE 21.2
One of several different conditional formatting dialog boxes.
The formatting suggestions in the drop-down control are just a few of thousands of different formatting
combinations. In most cases, none of Excel’s suggestions is what you want, so you choose the Custom
Format option to display the Format Cells dialog box. You can specify the format in any or all of the four
tabs: Number, Font, Border, and Fill.
The Format Cells dialog box used for conditional formatting is a modified version of the standard
Format Cells dialog box. It doesn’t have the Number, Alignment, and Protection tabs; and
some of the Font formatting options are disabled. The dialog box also includes a Clear button that clears any
formatting already selected.
NOTE
Making your own rules
For do-it-yourself types, Excel provides the New Formatting Rule dialog box, shown in Figure 21.3. Access
this dialog box by choosing Home ➪ Styles ➪ Conditional Formatting ➪ New Rules.
The New Formatting Rule dialog box lets you recreate all the conditional format rules available via the
Ribbon, as well as new rules.
FIGURE 21.3
Use the New Formatting Rule dialog box to create your own conditional formatting rules.
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