Some people can glance at a column and create a visual image of the relationships among the numbers. However, if all you see is a bunch of numbers, you can add displays that indicate the relationships of the numbers to each other. For example, you can include bars that show the relative value of each number, you can color-code entries by their ranking, and you can even use icons to indicate the relative values.

Show the Relative Value

1. Select the cells you want to include. Each value will be compared with all the other data in the selection.

2. On the Home tab, click the Conditional Formatting button, point to the type of indicator you want, and, in the gallery that appears, click the indicator you want.

3. If you want any additional indicators or another type of conditional formatting, repeat step 2.

   

Tip

To see how each indicator looks, point to the different indicators, but don’t click any of them; then select the one you want to use.