Conditional Formatting (IF not empty)

Question

How do I conditionally format a cell so if not blank it is grey?

I tried to do 'not equal', but it didn't work.

I am using Windows Office 2003 with Windows XP at work. I don't see the same feature as below:

What I have tried so far:

Edit: Figured what was wrong. In my production (actual work Excel), they were filled with white color. It wasn't my Excel file, so I was not aware of this before.

Answer 1

You can use Conditional formatting with the option "Formula Is". One possible formula is

=NOT(ISBLANK($B1))

Another possible formula is

=$B1<>""

Answer 2

Does this work for you:

You find this dialog on the Home ribbon, under the Styles group, the Conditional Formatting menu, New rule....

Answer 3

In Excel 2003 you should be able to create a formatting rule like:

=A1<>"" and then drag/copy this to other cells as needed.

If that doesn't work, try =Len(A1)>0.

If there may be spaces in the cell which you will consider blank, then do:

=Len(Trim(A1))>0

Let me know if you can't get any of these to work. I have an old machine running XP and Office 2003, I can fire it up to troubleshoot if needed.

Answer 4

This worked for me:

=NOT(ISBLANK(A1))

I wanted a box around NOT Blank cells in an entire worksheet. Use the $A1 if you want the WHOLE ROW formatted based on the A1, B1, etc result.

Thanks!

Answer 5

This method works for Excel 2016, and calculates on cell value, so can be used on formula arrays (i.e. it will ignore blank cells that contain a formula).

• Highlight the range.
• Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule > Use a Formula.
• Enter "=LEN(#)>0" (where '#' is the upper-left-most cell in your range).
• Alter the formatting to suit your preference.

Note: Len(#)>0 be altered to only select cell values above a certain length.

Note 2: '#' must not be an absolute reference (i.e. shouldn't contain '$').

Answer 6

An equivalent result, "other things being equal", would be to format all cells grey and then use Go To Special to select the blank cells prior to removing their grey highlighting.