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The conditional-formatting rules in Excel — highlight cells rules, top/bottom rules, data bars, color scales, and icon sets — offer an easy way to analyze data through visualization. However, you can tailor your formatting-based data analysis also by creating a custom conditional-formatting rule that suits how you want to analyze and present the data.

Custom conditional-formatting rules are ideal for situations in which normal value judgments — that is, that higher values are good and lower values are bad — don’t apply. In a database of product defects, for example, lower values are better than higher ones. Similarly, data bars are based on the relative numeric values in a range, but you might prefer to base them on the relative percentages or on percentile rankings.

To get the type of data analysis you prefer, follow these steps to create a custom conditional-formatting rule and apply it to your range:

1 Select the range you want to analyze with a custom conditional-formatting rule.

2 Choose Home ⇒ Conditional Formatting ⇒ New Rule.The New Formatting Rule dialog box appears.

3 In the Select a Rule Type box, select the type of rule you want to create.

4 Use the controls in the Edit the Rule Description box to edit the rule’s style and formatting.The controls you see depend on the rule type you selected in Step 3. For example, if you select Icon Sets, you see the controls shown in Figure 1-6. With Icon Sets, select Reverse Icon Order (as shown in the figure) if you want to reverse the normal icon assignments.

5 Click OK.Excel applies the conditional formatting to each cell in the range.

FIGURE 1-6: Use the New Formatting Rule dialog box to create a custom rule.