Imagine a spreadsheet that automatically turns sales figures exceeding targets green, or instantly flags stocks that jump over 10% to yellow. Well, that’s the magic of conditional formatting.

Thanks to the linked cell property in Microsoft Excel, it's super easy to use the selected value as a condition in a macro or conditional formatting rule.

Conditional formatting highlights key information in a spreadsheet so it’s easy to see at a glance. This beginner’s guide gets you started using conditional formatting.

If your subtotaling rows are lost in a sea of worksheet data, use this simple conditional formatting technique to make those rows easy to spot.

As you can see, it's not hard to use conditional formatting to get over what is blocking you from completing a task in Excel. 6 Times Excel's Conditional Formatting Saved My Sanity ...