Conditional formatting of a cell in a column if character count reaches a limit

Hi , I want to highlight a cell in a column if the character count is greater than say 100. How can i apply this to a entire column or a particular range (i would like to know for both cases). I am using Excel 2007, please guide me where i need to apply this?

Thanks for the response FDibbins! I have tried this formula in Conditional Formatting->New Rules->Use a formula to determine which cells to format. I tried this several times already, dont really understand why it doesn't work

Originally Posted by FDibbins

you can do this with conditional formatting

1. highlight the range you want to apply the conditional formatting to
2. on the home tabe, styles, select CF
3. select new rule, select use formula
4. enter =len(a1)>100

you can either select just the range you need (prefered), or use the column reference A:A
note tho that using an enrire row or column can be a big drain on system resources

Need help to resolve this!

Employee_Details.xlsx

Hi! I have attached workbook, i assume the limit in the Comments column(for each cell) to be 10 characters. Please suggest the changes.

Originally Posted by FDibbins

can you upload a sample workbook for me to look at?

Thanks FDBinns! I finally figured it out! To people who are a noob like me, first we need to select the entire column for which we need to apply this formatting. Then go to Conditional Formatting->New Rules->Use a formula to determine which cells to format. Enter the formula =LEN(FirstCellInTheColumnRange)>10, select the color you need to highlight. For Example, if the Column is A, select the entire column first, and in conditional formatting the formula will be applied to the first cell in the Column i.e =LEN(A1)>10, if the column is F, select the F column, then the formula will be =LEN(F1)>10.

FBDibbins, my bad i didnt understand it at first shot. Once it worked fine, I realized that what u explained made perfect sense. i blame my noobness.

Thanks for the advice! The number of rows displayed keeps changing. Need to find a workaround for this.

Originally Posted by FDibbins

not a problem at all, we all have to start somewhere

edit: I just noticed that you said "first we need to select the entire column for which we need to apply this formatting. ". Just so that you are aware, its mostly not a good idea to apply CF to entire rows or columns, as it can become very resource-intensive. It is better if you can just apply CF to the range needed, or, if the range is going to continue to grow, to maybe 2-or-32 times the size of the expected range

I just recorded a macro. I think i can easily do some changes here to make it work with my code.

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I just recorded a macro. I think i can easily do some changes here to make it work with my code.

Please Login or Register  to view this content.