Conditional formatting to highlight a cell if a different cell has no input

Aaronsmity

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Joined
Oct 16, 2009
Messages
13
This seem like it would be simple enough but im not sure if Excel has the functionality to do this. I know you can write code to highlight a cell (lets say cell A1) if a certain condition is met in that cell. But is it possible to highlight cell A1 if a certain condition is met in a different cell?

I am trying to have certain cells highlighted black until something is inputted in A1.

Thanks for any help.

Aaron
 

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This seem like it would be simple enough but im not sure if Excel has the functionality to do this. I know you can write code to highlight a cell (lets say cell A1) if a certain condition is met in that cell. But is it possible to highlight cell A1 if a certain condition is met in a different cell?

I am trying to have certain cells highlighted black until something is inputted in A1.

Thanks for any help.

Aaron
Welcome to the MrExcel board!

Select the cells you want to be black, then in Conditional Formatting, choose 'Formula is:' and use the formula =$A$1=""
 
Upvote 0
Aaronsmity,

Sample data with nothing in cell A1:


Excel Workbook
AB
1
Sheet1



Sample data with anything in cell A1:


Excel Workbook
AB
1Aaronsmity
Sheet1




Conditional Formatting:

Formula is: =$A$1=""
Format Pattern is BLACK
 
Upvote 0
Awesome thanks for the help. Ok so i selected the column cells in row A that I want to be blacked out and added in the conditional formula that if A1 was blank to turn black and it worked.

Now is there a quick and easy way to copy the formula down for every row to have the same kind of formula or must I manually do this for every row? (i.e. copy it to row B so that if B1 is black, then the same column calls as in row A are blacked out in row B).

Thanks for helping me out on this!
 
Upvote 0
Awesome thanks for the help. Ok so i selected the column cells in row A that I want to be blacked out and added in the conditional formula that if A1 was blank to turn black and it worked.

Now is there a quick and easy way to copy the formula down for every row to have the same kind of formula or must I manually do this for every row? (i.e. copy it to row B so that if B1 is black, then the same column calls as in row A are blacked out in row B).

Thanks for helping me out on this!
A little bit confusing because you are referring to row A. Rows run horizontally across the sheet and are generally labelled with numbers. Columns run vertically and are generally labelled with letters.

However, if you want to format a column based on the top cell being blank, then you can select your range (say A2:J50) then in Conditional Formatting use the formula:
=A$1=""

Notice no $ in front of the A this time so Excel knows to adjust the column to suit.
 
Upvote 0
oh i think i figured it out... the $ acts as an anchor/fixes the cells so it cant be copied down, i just removed it from the formula and it works great, thanks.

EDIT: oh and you posted a reply already when i responded! wow that was fast, thanks.
 
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