Cell Formatting Conditional On Other Cells Fill Color?

I'm not sure of the best way to go about this. First let me say that I
am a basic though long time Excel user. I can use basic Excel
functionality but I wouldn't even know where (much less how) to begin
to write VB code without very detailed instructions.

I am trying to create conditional formatting based on a gantt type
chart. This chart may not line up correctly using variable width fonts
but consider the following;

ABCDEF
1 GORO
2 BBB
3 BBB
4 BB

There are no cell values, just cell formatting. The cell values in the
above example represent color filled cells. (B=BLACK, W=WHITE, G=GREEN,
O=ORANGE, R=RED)

In row #1 I want to color each cell based on the number of color filled
cells found in the column below it. So A1 would be white because there
are no colored cells in column A. B1 would be green because there is 1
black cell in the column. C1 would be orange because there are 2 black
filled cells under it and D1 would be red because there are 3 colored
cells under it.

I want to be able to highlight cells in a given row and select a black
color fill and have row #1 automatically update itself based on the new
total number of colored cells below it.

I am very comfortable following very detailed instructions but sparse
references will quickly get me lost.

Thank you in advance!
Roger Westbrook

Hi Roger,

I would suggest instead of formatting your cells in row 2 down with black
and a code solution, do everything with conditional formats.

Select A2, Format > Conditional Formats

Change Cell value is to Formula is
=LEN(A2)>0
Apply a Pattern colour, eg Black
Copy A2 to A2:E10

Type something in any of these cells, should change to black. Delete the
cell, should revert to white or the original cell colour format.

Add 3 CF conditions in cell A1, each Formula is
=COUNTA(A$2:A$10)>=3 | Red
=COUNTA(A$2:A$10)=2 | Orange
=COUNTA(A$2:A$10)=1 | Green

Copy A1 to A1:E1

Ensure the $ are exactly as above and should be no quotes - go back and
double check.

If you decide to change your black, change the font to same colour.

Regards,
Peter T


<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I'm not sure of the best way to go about this. First let me say that I
> am a basic though long time Excel user. I can use basic Excel
> functionality but I wouldn't even know where (much less how) to begin
> to write VB code without very detailed instructions.
>
> I am trying to create conditional formatting based on a gantt type
> chart. This chart may not line up correctly using variable width fonts
> but consider the following;
>
> ABCDEF
> 1 GORO
> 2 BBB
> 3 BBB
> 4 BB
>
> There are no cell values, just cell formatting. The cell values in the
> above example represent color filled cells. (B=BLACK, W=WHITE, G=GREEN,
> O=ORANGE, R=RED)
>
> In row #1 I want to color each cell based on the number of color filled
> cells found in the column below it. So A1 would be white because there
> are no colored cells in column A. B1 would be green because there is 1
> black cell in the column. C1 would be orange because there are 2 black
> filled cells under it and D1 would be red because there are 3 colored
> cells under it.
>
> I want to be able to highlight cells in a given row and select a black
> color fill and have row #1 automatically update itself based on the new
> total number of colored cells below it.
>
> I am very comfortable following very detailed instructions but sparse
> references will quickly get me lost.
>
> Thank you in advance!
> Roger Westbrook
>

Thank you Peter that works perfectly and seems better than the way I'd
intended. Thanks again and have a great day!

Roger Westbrook