How to conditional format a cell based on the contents of another cell

Microsoft Excel tip

This tip shows you how to apply conditional formatting to a cell depening on the value of another cell.

For example say you have a worksheet to store Tasks.
It has a Status column, with values TBD, Active, etc... and a description column which stores text.

Let's say you want to make the description cells yellow if the Status cell is 'TBD'

To accomplish this, click on the cell you wish to format, then click Format->Conditional Formatting.

In the Formula field, you would put:

=FIND("TBD",$F32)

... where F32 is is the Status cell next to the Description cell. (The $ tells Excel to leave F as the column reference if you paste this formula into other rows.)

And then specify the formatting, e.g. Yellow shading.

That's it. You can also use the format painter or Paste Special to paste this formula into other cells.