How do you change the color of an excel cell based on the value in the cell?

Question

Basically I want it to automatically change the color to red if the solution in the cell is a negative number.

Answer 1

Select the cells where you want the formatting to be applied to.

Go to "Format" select "Conditional Formatting" and enter your criteria.

It will format the cells based on the criteria you entered in the step above.

Answer 2

okay its real easy, go to format, then Conditional formatting, then make sure it says cell value is "equal to" or whatever u need it to be, then on the right box below u click format and pick the color under the patterns tab for the whole cell shading, and u can click add to do 2 more like this. good luck!

Answer 3

Do you want the entire cell pattern to be read or just the color of font to be read?

If it is just the font, various excel number formats already have a red font feature for negative numbers.  This is based on the old saying of being the red, when you have a loss.  Under Format, Cell..., Number tab: the options this is available under is either Number or Currency.  When you click on those options in the left panel, the center panel will show various formating options.  You want the red one with parenthesis.

If you want the entire cell to be red, then on the menu, click Format, Conditional Formating.  Leave "Cell Value Is" alone. 2nd drop down option, click "Less than".  Third option, type in 0 (zero).  Click the 'Format' box, then you will get the usual format options.  Choose the 'Pattern' tab.   Choose the color of your choice, then OK, OK to accept the changes.