Читать книгу Excel Data Analysis For Dummies - Paul McFedries - Страница 26

Conditional-formatting rules are excellent data-visualization tools that can make analyzing your data easier and faster. Whether you're highlighting cells based on criteria, showing cells in the top or bottom of a range, or using features such as data bars, color scales, and icon sets, conditional formatting enables you to interpret your data quickly.

But it doesn't follow that all your conditional-formatting experiments will be successful ones. For example, you might find that the conditional formatting you used isn’t working out because it doesn’t let you visualize your data the way you’d hoped. Similarly, a change in data might require a change in the condition you used. Whatever the reason, you can edit your conditional-formatting rules to ensure that you get the best visualization for your data. Here’s how:

1 Select a cell in the range that includes the conditional-formatting rule you want to edit.You can select a single cell, multiple cells, or the entire range.

2 Choose Home ⇒ Conditional Formatting ⇒ Manage Rules.The Conditional Formatting Rules Manager dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 1-7.FIGURE 1-7: Use the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager to edit your rules.

3 Select the rule you want to modify.If you don’t see the rule, click the Show Formatting Rules For drop-down list and then select This Worksheet. The list that appears displays every conditional-formatting rule that you’ve applied in the current worksheet.

4 Choose Edit Rule.The Edit Formatting Rule dialog box appears.

5 Make your changes to the rule.

6 Click OK.Excel returns you to the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager dialog box.

7 Select OK.Excel updates the conditional formatting.

If you have multiple conditional-formatting rules applied to a range, the visualization is affected by the order in which Excel applies the rules. Specifically, if a cell already has a conditional format applied, Excel does not overwrite that format with a new one. For example, suppose that you have two conditional-formatting rules applied to a list of student grades: one for grades over 90 and one for grades over 80. If you apply the over-80 conditional format first, Excel will never apply the over-90 format because those values are already covered by the over-80 format. The solution is to change the order of the rule. In the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager dialog box, select the rule that you want to modify and then click the Move Up and Move Down button to set the order you want. If you want Excel to stop processing the rest of the rules after it has applied a particular rule, select that rule’s Stop If True check box.