What is conditional formatting?

Conditional formatting is a fantastic feature that allows you to automatically apply colors, fonts, or other styles to your spreadsheet data based on specific rules or conditions. It’s like a smart helper that highlights essential information for you, making it easier to analyze and understand your data. 

Imagine you own a small business, and you’re tracking your monthly sales. You have a spreadsheet with the names of your products, their prices, and the quantity sold each month.

Using conditional formatting, you can effortlessly highlight: 

1. The top-selling products are in green, so you can focus on promoting them further. 
2. The low-selling products are in red, signaling that you may need to reconsider their pricing or marketing strategy. 

How does it work? You simply set up rules or conditions, like “highlight all cells greater than 50” or “color the text in cells containing ‘urgent’ in bold red.” When the data in your spreadsheet meets these conditions, the formatting you specified will be applied automatically. 

So, conditional formatting is a powerful tool that makes your spreadsheet data more visually appealing and easier to understand. It helps you quickly identify patterns, trends, and areas that need attention, enabling you to make smarter business decisions. Happy formatting!