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To highlight cells that are greater than another cell in Excel, you can use the New Rule option under the Conditional Formatting dropdown menu within the Home tab.
The following example shows how to use this option in practice.
Example: Highlight Cell if Greater Than Another Cell
Suppose we have the following dataset in Excel that shows the points scored by various basketball players during two seasons:
Now suppose that we would like to highlight each of the cells in the Season 1 column that contain a value greater than the corresponding cell in the Season 2 column.
To do so, highlight the cells in the range B2:B13, then click the Conditional Formatting dropdown menu on the Home tab and then click New Rule:
In the new window that appears, click Use a formula to determine which cells to format, then type =B2>C2 in the box, then click the Format button and choose a fill color to use.
Once we press OK, all of the cells in the range B2:B13 that have a value greater than the corresponding value in the range C2:C13 will be highlighted:
For example:
- Andy had a higher points value in Season 1 than Season 2, so his points value in Season 1 is highlighted.
- Bob did not have a higher points value in Season 1 than Season 2, so his points value in Season 1 is not highlighted.
And so on.
Note #1: If you would like to highlight cells that are greater than or equal to another cell value, then use =B2>=C2 as the formatting rule formula instead.