MS Excel - Conditional Formatting

Conditional formatting is a feature in many spreadsheet applications that allows you to apply specific formatting to cells that meet certain criteria. It is most often used as color-based formatting to highlight, emphasize, or differentiate among data and information stored in a spreadsheet.

Conditional formatting enables spreadsheet users to do a number of things. First and foremost, it calls attention to important data points such as deadlines, at-risk tasks, or budget items. It can also make large data sets more digestible by breaking up the wall of numbers with a visual organizational component. Finally, conditional formatting can transform your spreadsheet (that previously only stored data) into a dependable “alert” system that highlights key information and keeps you on top of your workload.

Originally a powerful feature of Excel, other spreadsheet applications have also adopted this functionality.