Add conditional highlighting to cells

You can have Numbers change a cell’s appearance when the value in the cell meets certain conditions. For example, you can make cells turn red if they contain a negative number. To change the appearance of a cell based on its cell value, create a conditional highlighting rule.

Add a conditional highlighting rule

  1. Select one or more cells.

  2. In the Cell pane of the Format inspector, click Conditional Highlighting, then click Add a Rule.

  3. Click a type of rule (for example, if your cell value will be a date, select Dates), then click a rule. You can scroll to see more options.

    Tabs for Number, Text, Dates, Durations, and Blank rule types

  4. Enter values for the rule.

    For example, if you selected the rule “date is after,” enter values to specify what date the date in the cell must come after.

    Click Cell reference button to use a cell reference. A cell reference lets you compare the cell’s value to another cell—so, for example, you can highlight a cell when its value is greater than another cell’s. Click a cell to select it, or enter its table address (for example, F1).

    After you add a cell reference, you can choose whether a cell reference is relative or absolute. Click the arrow on the token and select Preserve Row or Preserve Column. For more information, go to Calculate values using data in table cells.

  5. Choose the cell appearance you want from the pop-up menu, such as Bold or Italic.

    You can choose Custom Style to choose your own font color, font weight, and cell fill.

  6. Click Done.

To delete a rule, select the cell or range of cells with the rule you want to delete. In the Cell pane of the Format Inspector, click Show Highlighting Rules. Move the pointer over the rule, then click Trash button in the top-right corner.

Note:  If a cell matches multiple rules, its appearance changes according to the first rule in the list. You can drag to reorder rules.