enter image description hereI am creating a table with a schedule events over the course of a year. There are three repeating events, and I would like to highlight the entire row of each repeating event in a different color. I thought that would be a useful thing to do for planning purposes in any sort of schedule or calendar.
So, for instance:
If Event 1, highlight table row in green
If Event 2, highlight table row in orange
If Event 3, highlight table row in blue
I have successfully created a rule for each of them that highlights the individual cell in the desired color, but it does not highlight the entire row within the table. I have also successfully created a rule that will highlight the entire row of the table for one event.
However, I cannot get multiple rules that highlight entire table rows to work concurrently.
Is Excel 2016 capable of doing this?
Thank you in advance for your help!
Edit: Addition of sample formula and screenshot. Thank you Alan!
Sample formula: =$E101="Event 1"
Yes, it is possible to apply multiple rules in the manner you describe.
You haven't posted samples of the rules, nor a screenshot, so I can't comment on why it isn't working for you.
Inside, here is a mock-up showing you a working row-based multi-layered conditional formatting.
Note that how you are aligning your events is important - if you can have event collisions (i.e. more than one event on the same row), then you will need to decide how to handle the collision (e.g. order of priority or add additional rules for mixed colours).
Update based on added details:
Your schedule with conditional formatting applied:
The rules:
Note: If you apply the rules and they don't immediately show up correctly, check the rules. When I entered these, Excel would corrupt the formula and I had to reenter them.
Also note the $E to lock the formula to the Event column.
Related
I have a table in Excel that has column heading names (e.g. data_type1, data_type2, etc.). The data in this table changes based on parameters entered on another sheet, and they are pulled to charts which update dynamically.
As a convenience to a user who might be using this sheet I have added a 'user specified function' (non-vba) which also plots to one of the charts. By user specified function I mean I have three cells with dropdown lists. Two correspond to the table headings and one has a short list of operations that can be applied between the two selected data types (e.g. a user might select 'dataype1', '+', 'datatype2' which would produce a sum of the two in the final column of my table).
The user specified function is achieved by defining a named 'range/function' to match the drop downs with their respective column headers and then calls evaluate. See below:
=EVALUATE("="&ADDRESS(ROW('Raw Data'!XFD5),MATCH(user_in1,'Raw Data'!$A$4:$AF$4,0)) & user_operation & ADDRESS(ROW('Raw Data'!XFD5),MATCH(user_in2,'Raw Data'!$A$4:$AF$4,0)))
I name this 'user1_result' and then enter =user1_result in the final column of my table. This approach is nice because it calculates much faster than doing the same thing through building a UDF in VBA and then applying that UDF to every cell in a fairly long column.
Now here is my hangup, this works fine initially, but if the user makes a parameter change that affects one or both of the selected datatypes, the user specified column does not recalculate on-the-fly with the updated data. If the user re-toggles any of the dropdowns the data does recalculate. I am speculating this is from one of two things:
1) Excel does not recognize that a precedent of 'user1_result' has changed, and so for efficiency sake doesn't bother to recompute the column;
2) The 'Evaluate' function used in the named definition of 'user1_result' is not checked for updating, because it's not a normal function (doesn't show up through intellisense if you try to just add that to a cell).
So I am looking for some either confirmation or refutation of these speculations. In the case of confirmation I am hoping to get some advice on how to force the user specified column to update if its precedents change.
One solution is to have VBA do this checking for me and force the computation, but I would like to leave that as a last resort. So, non-VBA solutions preferred.
For posterity I'll answer the above question based on Mat'sMug's feedback:
Regarding the cause of the problem:
The reason the user specified column does not update is because the 'Evaluate' portion of the 'user1_result' named formula is intended to be used at the application level and not as a worksheet function. Because of this, Excel doesn't bother checking to see if its precedents change and ignores it for recalculation.
The problem's solution:
It was suggested to use VBA to watch for worksheet_change events, however, my problem requires that I do NOT use VBA. So, an alternative workaround that forces Excel to check precedents and recalculate the user specified function uses two steps. This functions as a pseudo worksheet_change stand-in.
First, I use a helper cell that performs a countif with an arbitrary counting condition. I don't need it to change, I just need it to share precedents with the inputs of 'user1_result'. So I have it count the number of cells in the first row of data that are larger than some constant:
=COUNTIF(A5:AK5,">100000")
The result of this computation doesn't matter, but in my case my data have small values and so this returns 0 always.
Second, I use a condition for the computation in the user specified column (the last column in my data table).
=IF($AO$1=$AO$1,user1_result)
Now, anytime my data table updates, the final column using the named function recomputes. Simple, and if using macros is not viable (for example due to a client/user's security concerns), this can sort of substitute for a worksheet change event.
I hope somebody out there gets use from this!
can you tell me how I can group rows using a value in a specific cell and then highlight the individual groups by alternate colours i.e. one group with white background and one group with a colour in excel? I have macro code which inserts a blank line but I don't know how to colour using macro.
You don't need a macro, just run conditional formatting for values equal to the value of the group you are using.
Here is an excellent guide for how to highlight a row using conditional formatting. It does exactly what you asked for without having to write any code. As you can see it works for multiple rows sharing the common set value.
This is assuming that the only reason you wanted them grouped in the first place was for colouring them together, this method is best if you want to preserve the order of your data.
I have a very specific question that I am looking for help in answering. I have been researching for hours and I feel like I am not able to find what I am looking for. Below is a quick overview of the criteria that my document must follow:
I am using Excel 2013
I will just be using rows for data input (instead of an excel object
table).
The very top/first row will act as my "column header".
This top row will have AutoFilter enabled.
THE DOCUMENT MUST BE PROTECTED (a must-have)!
I will be using VBA code
Now, the final issue I am having with finishing this document are the last two criteria points that I must have:
The first/top row (column headers) must NOT BE EDITABLE.
Each column must be able to SORT AND FILTER.
Now, in a perfect world, I would just "Lock Cells" for the entire first row that acts as my column headers and when I protect the worksheet I would make sure to check the "Sort" and "Use AutoFilter" boxes.
However, this option does not work because there seems to be an issue when I try to sort the data. If I just filter the data there is no problem, but when I try to sort a column in ascending/descending order I will get an error informing me that I can't sort locked cells while in Protected mode. This is because when excel uses the Sort function, it counts the header as part of the data that is being sorted (I found this out through my research) even though I really just want the data below it to be sorted.
I have been trying to brainstorm on how to get past this issue as well as researching different methods, and I am having trouble coming to a final conclusion. However I have narrowed it down to 2 possible solutions:
I want to be able to keep the cells in the first row officially unlocked to allow the AutoFilter's sort command to work as intended, but make it "behave" like the cells are locked when a user tries to make changes to it (AKA, make the entire row un-editable or un-selectable).
The other option would be to keep the first row locked but somehow have an event in VBA that can tell when a user tries to "Sort" the column, which will then temporarily unprotect the worksheet, follow through with the intended sort command, then protect the worksheet again (apparently though, upon my research there is no such event that can trigger off the AutoFilter's sort command alone).
These 2 solutions are the most logical I can think of based off my research, but if someone out there is an Excel genius and knows another way I am open to suggestions.
Thanks in advance for your help/suggestions,
Travo
Consider using two header rows. The top row would be protected and the second row would facilitate filtering and sorting of the data in rows 3 and below.
I have a Worksheet with 10 columns and data range from A1:J55. Col A has the invoice # and rest of the columns have other demographic data. Goal is to type the invoice number on a cell and display all the rows matching the invoice number from col A.
Besides auto filter function, the only thing comes to my mind is VBA. Please advice what is the best way to get the data. Thanks for your help in advance.
Alright, I'm pretty proud of this one. Again avoiding VBA, this one uses the volatile formula OFFSET to keep moving its VLOOKUP search down the table until it's found all matches. Just make sure you paste enough rows of the formula that if there are many matches, there's room for all of them to appear. If you put a border around your match area then it would be clear if you ever ran out of room and needed to copy down the formula some more.
Again, in the main section, it's just a single formula (using index):
=IFERROR(INDEX($A$1:$J$200,$M3,MATCH(N$2,$A$1:$J$1,0)),"")
This gets to be so simple because the hard work of the lookup is done by an initial column which looks up the next row that matches the invoice number. It has the formula:
=IFERROR(MATCH($L$2,OFFSET($A$1:$A$200,M2,0),0)+M2," ")
Here is the working example that goes with those formulas:
Let me know if you need any further description of how it works, but it mostly uses the same rules as above so that it's robust in copying and moving around.
I've uploaded the Excel file so you can play with it, but everything you need to reproduce this feature should be in this solution.
Google Docs - Click link and hit Ctrl+S to download and open in Excel.
A popular solution to this problem is a simple VLookup. Lookup the invoice the user types in on the table A1:J55, and then return an adjascent column's data.
Here's an example of it working:
The formula in the highlighted cell is:
=VLOOKUP($L3,$A:$J,MATCH(N$2,$1:$1,0),FALSE)
What's nice about this formula is you only need to type it once and then you can copy it across and it'll automatically pick out the correct column of the table (that's the match part). The rest is very simple:
The first part says lookup value $L3 (the invoice number typed in),
The second part says look it up in range $A:$J (which is where your table is located). I've shown how you can select the entire columns $A:$J so that you can add and remove data without worrying about adjustin the range in your lookups. (Excel takes care of optimizing the formula so that unused cells aren't checked)
The third part picks the column from which the resulting data will be drawn once a matching row is found.
The FALSE part is an indication that the invoice number must match exactly (no approximate matching allowed)
The $ signs ensure that fixed ranges like the location of your source table ($A:$J) and your lookup value ($L3) don't get automatically changed as you copy the formula across for multiple columns.
The formula is pretty easy to adapt if you want to move around your table and the area where you do your lookup. Here's an example:
Bonus
If you want to add a little spiff, you can add a dropdown to the Invoice # field so that the user gets auto-completion and the option to browse existing values like so:
I have a semi-dynamically created window ( and use PowerBuilder 10.5 ). Now there are a couple of columns which can have different colours and I want to see those colours when selecting a row. However I don't know how to deselect these columns and have the first couple of columns remain selected.
The highlight function in our application just does a dw.selectrow( x, true ).
Regards,
Marinus
I don't think you'll get what you want using selectrow. If you don't need multiple selections you could change the background of the current row with an expression in the datawindow. If you want some columns to stay normal you could do that with a rectangle behind the ones you want to highlight instead of changing the row color. If you need multiple rows highlighted you will have to simulate multi-select by adding a dummy column and using that to control the background, and of course you need to handle the selecting and deselecting in the clicked event. If you've got code that deals with selected rows you'll have to change them to use the new scheme, for example by checking the value in your dummy column.
If you want to use SelectRow(), maybe use of SetRowFocusIndicator() would help. IIRC (it's been pretty close to decade*s* since I've used it), it disables the row colouring in favour of the new method.
The other way that comes to mind is setting an expression for background colour that uses GetRow() and CurrentRow(). This wouldn't be my first choice, as it doesn't let users with vision impairment choose their colours through standard Windows colour selection to something they can deal with, but if you're dead set on colour indications on selective columns, this would be the way to go.
Good luck,
Terry.