Skip to content
Lesson 1/5

A rule is a TRUE/FALSE formula

Exercise 1 of 3

Refunds are negative amounts. In D2, write a rule for row 2 that is TRUE when the amount is below 0. It is copied down to D9 and the matching rows are highlighted.

About this lesson

Conditional formatting can colour rows by a formula. You write the formula for the first row, it returns TRUE or FALSE, and Excel highlights the rows where it is TRUE. Here you write that formula in a column, so you can see the result on every row.

In this lesson

  1. Refunds are negative amounts. In D2, write a rule for row 2 that is TRUE when the amount is below 0. It is copied down to D9 and the matching rows are highlighted.
  2. Highlight the late invoices. In D2, write a rule that is TRUE when the status in row 2 is "late".
  3. A rule =C2>100 is applied to rows 2 to 9. Which invoices does it highlight?

Use the arrow keys to move between cells; each cell is read out as you go. Type a formula and press Enter. The sheet is also available as a table below.

fx

Type in D2 and press Enter to check.