Change font color based on cell value.

[acorend]

Ok I've seen some posts on this but none of them answer my question so here goes!

I am doing a cost comparison of ~300 items. On one side I have the original planners $/item on the other side of the sheet I want to show any differences in price if:
1. The price has increased above the planned price show as bold/red
2. If there has been no change in $ the show no change.
3. If there has been a savings in $ then show green font.

I've tried Conditional Formatting but after I set it to one cell I can't populate the formula across a range.

Remember also that each bit of equipment that I'm purchasing is it's own line item. So I can't ask Excel to base conditionals off of one #.

Basically a side-by-side comparison of:

Item A from 2007 at $10,000.00 against Item A from 2009 at 9,000.00

etc., etc.

I hope that makes sense and that you all can help because it's driving me nuts!


I thought some sort of IF statement might work but I've been looking around and haven't seen anything close.

=IF(A2 > C2, RED FONT, No Change)


Best regards!

 

[btadams]

You're close.

Select cell A2 and open Conditional Formatting. Choose to use a Formula and enter =A2>C2 and change font color to red. Then add another condition using a formula =A2<C2 and change the font to green.

 

[acorend]

Thanks for the fast reply!

Ok I can change the font to red in the first cell. Then I've gone in and removed the $ symbol and tried to drag/apply this to the rest of the column.

I can pick any cell in the column afterwards and I can see that it is comparing the correct cells but it's not applying the conditional.

 

[btadams]

Try using the Format Painter to copy the formatting to other cells. It looks like a paint brush on your toolbar/ribbon.

 

[acorend]

Only seems to apply it to the first cell but none of the others. Oh well we tried!

Seems like an easy thing to have a spreadsheet do. Ah well thanks for you time!