top and bottom rules apply conditional color scales with...

Copyright © 2011 by Pearson Education Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.From Skills for Success with Microsoft® Excel 2010 Comprehensive

Use Excel Functions and Tables | Microsoft Excel Chapter 4 More Skills: SKILL 11 | of 6

� A conditional format changes the appearance of a cell range based on a condition. Conditionalformats help you analyze data visually, which can help you identify critical issues, such asextremely low inventory levels, or patterns and trends, such as a product that is selling extremelywell.

� Analyzing data in a worksheet formatted with conditional formats can help answer questionssuch as Which member of the sales team has sold over $100,000 this month? or Which products arethe best selling and the worst selling? Questions like these are easier to answer when conditionalformatting is applied because cells can be highlighted to emphasize unusual values.

� Top/Bottom Rules enable the user to apply conditional formatting to the highest or the lowestvalues in a range of cells—for example, the five top-selling products or the 25 top salaries in apersonnel analysis.

To complete this workbook, you will need the following file:� e04_Plants

You will save your workbook as:� Lastname_Firstname_e04_Plants

1. Start Excel. From your student data files, open e04_Plants. Save the workbook in yourExcel Chapter 4 folder as Lastname_Firstname_e04_Plants

2. Add the file name in the worksheet’s left footer, and then return to Normal view.

3. Click cell B10. On the Design tab, in the Properties group, notice that the Table Name isBuildings. Click cell K10, and then in the Properties group, notice that the Table Name isParks.

The data in the worksheet shows two areas where the city displays plants—Buildingsand Parks—and also shows that each area’s data has been converted into an Excel table.The Buildings table is inserted in the range A6:F60, and the Parks table is inserted in therange H6:M56. Each Excel table’s data can be manipulated independently of the otherExcel table.

Notice that in row 5, the headings provide information about the data but are not thetable names.

ExcelCHAPTER 4

More Skills 11 Apply Conditional Color Scales with Top and Bottom Rules



4. Click cell A7 and then press C + V + b to select the range A7:A60. On the Home tab,in the Styles group, click the Conditional Formatting button. Point to Color Scales, andthen in the first row, point to the second color scale—Red - Yellow - Green Color Scale, asshown in Figure 1.

Color scales are visual guides that help the user understand data distribution and variation. A two-color scale compares a range of cells by using a gradation of two colors; the shade of the color represents higher or lower values. For example, in a greenand red color scale, one color can be specified to represent higher value cells and thesecond color to represent lower value cells.

A three-color scale compares a range of cells by using a gradation of three colors; theshades represent higher, middle, or lower values. For example, in a green, yellow, andred color scale, the higher value cells can be specified with green, middle value cellswith yellow, and lower value cells with red.

Figure 1

ConditionalFormatting button

Red - Yellow -Green Color Scale

Color Scales

5. Click the second thumbnail—Red - Yellow - Green Color Scale. Notice that the higher values are formatted with shades of red and the lower values with shades of green.

Because a low inventory should alert the manager to order more product and becausered is more traditionally an alert color, highlighting low inventory levels in a shade ofred will seem more logical to the manager.

6. Click the Conditional Formatting button, point to Color Scales, and then in the first row,click the first thumbnail—Green - Yellow - Red Color Scale.

The name of the Color Scale reflects how the colors will be assigned; that is, the firstcolor in the name will be applied to the cells with higher values.

7. In the Buildings Excel table, click the Quantity in Stock filter arrow, and then click SortSmallest to Largest. Click any cell to deselect column A, and then scroll down to view theshading in column A.

As the levels of inventory increase, the shading changes from red - low values,to yellow - middle values, to green - high values.

Notice that the conditional formatting and sorting changes in the Buildings Excel table have no effect on the Parks Excel table.

8. In the Parks Excel table, select the range H7:H56, and then apply the Blue - White - RedColor Scale. In the Parks Excel table, click the Quantity in Stock filter arrow, and then clickSort Largest to Smallest. Click any cell, and then compare your screen with Figure 2.

In this color scale, shades of blue are applied to the higher values. Because the two setsof data reside in separate Excel tables, you can sort the two sets of data in differentways.



Figure 2

Low numberdisplays at top

and formatted red

BuildingsExcel table

High numberdisplays at top

and formatted blue

ParksExcel table

9. In the Buildings Excel table, select the range F7:F60. Click the Conditional Formattingbutton, point to Top/Bottom Rules, and then click Top 10 Items. In the Top 10 Itemsdialog box, verify that 10 displays in the first box, and then click the arrow in the secondbox. In the displayed list, click Green Fill with Dark Green Text, and then click OK.

10. With the range F7:F60 still selected, click the Conditional Formatting button, point toTop/Bottom Rules, and then click Bottom 10 Items. Use the technique you just practiced to format the Bottom 10 Items with Light Red Fill with Dark Red Text. Click any cell todeselect the range.

The conditional formatting identifies the plants most often used in buildings withgreen and least often with red.

11. In the Parks Excel table, use the technique you just practiced to format the Number Usedcolumn—M7:M56—with the same conditional formatting for the Top 10 Items and theBottom 10 Items. Make cell A1 the active cell, and then compare your screen with Figure 3.



Figure 3

Top 10conditionalformatting

applied

Bottom 10conditionalformatting

applied

12. Click cell J8 to select the Parks Excel table. Click the Conditional Formatting button, andthen at the bottom of the displayed menu, click Manage Rules. In the ConditionalFormatting Rules Manager dialog box, under Rule (applied in order shown), click Bottom10, and then click the Edit Rule button. In the Edit Formatting Rule dialog box, under Editthe Rule Description, replace 10 with 5 and then click OK.

The conditional format is applied to only the bottom 5 items instead of the bottom 10 items.

13. In the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager dialog box, use the same technique tochange the Top 10 rule to a Top 5 rule. Click OK two times.

14. Look at the Parks Excel table, and count the number of items that were formatted in theNumber Used column. Verify that seven items were formatted green as the top five items—because three items have the value 133.

15. Click the Page Layout tab, and then in the Page Setup group, click the Print Titles button.In the Page Setup dialog box, under Print titles, click in the Rows to repeat at top box, asshown in Figure 4.



Figure 4

Page Setupdialog box

Insertion point

Collapse DialogBox button

16. Click the Collapse Dialog Box button. From the row heading area, select rows 5:6, andthen press JKL. In the Page Setup dialog box, click the Print Preview button. Verify thattwo pages will print and that the titles in rows 5 and 6 repeat at the top of Page 2, as shownin Figure 5.



Figure 5

Titles repeatat top of page 2

2 of 2

17. Check the spelling of the document and verify that crosus is changed to crocus, dasies ischanged to daisies and any other spelling errors have been corrected. Click the Home tab,and then Save the workbook. Print or submit the file as directed by your instructor. ExitExcel.

� You have completed More Skills 11

top and bottom rules apply conditional color scales with...

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