Excel 2007 : Enabling conditional formatting on an entire Excel file

**gessie** · 10-14-2008, 09:45 AM

Hi,

Situation: I have multiple worksheets in one excel file which all need to contain the same conditional formatting.

Problem: I want to manage this from a central location, so I can add conditional formatting rules easily without having to add them to each worksheet.

Any ideas? I'm using Excel 2007.

**pr4t3ek** · 10-14-2008, 09:51 AM

hey, you could create a macro to do this for you?
If the number of sheets vary on a day to day basis then this can be implemented in your macro code too.

**gessie** · 10-15-2008, 02:20 AM

Thanks for the reply. But how? I know very little about macros in Excel.

**gessie** · 10-16-2008, 02:34 AM

I've tried turning the entire file (multiple worksheets) into a named range (so I can apply the CF to that) using "';" after each reference to a worksheet's cells, but this isn't working either.

Is there perhaps a way to do this?

**pr4t3ek** · 10-16-2008, 04:37 AM

gessie, can you send me your xls file and i'll give it a go this weekend?

**gessie** · 10-16-2008, 05:09 AM

It's got confidential information in it so I can't do that. I'll make you a test file though, as an example.

The first worksheet contains a named range used for the data validation in the other two worksheets (you replied to my other topic so I presume you know the situation). The second and third worksheets contain a little data, the third contains the conditional formatting as well. The second doesn't.

I hope this post is clear, I'm not feeling well. Thanks in advance.

**pr4t3ek** · 10-16-2008, 06:35 AM

tell me, in the second sheet, you have Windows 2008 Server in a different cell compared to sheet 3. Is this the case with all your sheets or in all your sheets you have "Windows 2008 server" in a specific cell?

Also, your going to have to be a little more specific i think because i cant make a macro for from the file you sent to me. The reason is because then you will need to amend the macro code.

Also, if you dont know macro's too well then you might have to find another way because if anything does happen you will need to change your macro (which can be complicated)

**gessie** · 10-20-2008, 02:48 AM

I figured as much. I don't think using a macro would be a good idea then, especially because I'm not the only one who uses this file.

But there's got to be a simple way to do this. I bet there are plenty of people who would want to do this. Doesn't anyone know a way?

And thanks for trying to help.