Darren writes one of my favorite blogs – Problogger, it is a blog about blogging. It is super helpful for people like me who write, connect, share and sell online. A week back, Darren asked his readers to participate in a fun experiment by posting 7 links on their blogs. It seemed like an interesting idea, so I am chipping in.
1. My First Post on Excel: While this blog is in existence since 2004, I did not start writing about excel until 2006. My first post on excel is How to remove duplicates. This was not written on chandoo.org, but on my excel blog r1c1.blogspot.com which I later imported here.
2. The post I enjoyed writing most: Now, this is difficult to choose. Because, writing is not what I enjoy most. My enjoyment comes when an article generates a lot of conversation (comments, discussion on other blogs etc.). To that extent, the most enjoyed post is Become a Conditional Formatting Rockstar.
3. Post(s) that had great discussion: I am proud of our community here. Most of the posts generate quite a bit of discussion and sharing of ideas. Here is a list of posts that had lots of insightful comments:
- Do you know these double click tricks? – 86 comments
- Introduction to VLOOKUP, MATCH and OFFSET formulas – 75 comments
- Become a Conditional Formatting Rockstar – 180 comments
- Calculating Days Overlapped Between 2 sets of dates – 46 comments
- Childhood dream comes true – story of Chandoo.org – 86 comments
- Excel Keyboard Shortcuts – Open Thread – 66 comments [read followup Comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts in Excel which consolidates all these shortcuts in to one post]
4. A post on someone else’s blog that I wish I’d written: 2 posts come to mind. First one is Debra’s unbelievably comprehensive collection of Pivot Table tips & tricks. Next one is Jon’s detailed overview of number formats in excel. Both of them are very well structured, highly sought after topics that I wish I had written. I refer to them every now and then when I am stuck and need help.
5. A post title that I am most proud of: Hands down it has to be Want to be a conditional formatting rock star? Read this. But I also like Twins, Clones and Duplicates – 6 Excel Shortcuts from an Excited Dad which I wrote from hospital room when I became dad to twins in Sept, 2009.
6. A post I wish more people had read: hmm, it could be the Date with my sheet – 10 tips on using date / time in Excel, which despite having a lot of tips, never really took off.
7. Most read post ever: It has to be the Gantt Charts – Project Management using Excel post. Written on June 16th, last year, the post attracted 150k page views so far, with 63 comments. The post also played a crucial role in 630+ sales of Project Management Templates.
One Question for you:
What is your most favorite post on Chandoo.org and why do you like it? Please share using comments.
PS: If you are not in mood for excel, here is something to get you excited. Some one calls me a bastard and it made me laugh. Find out why.
17 Responses to “Custom Number Formats – Colors”
You are right, Chandoo. I was playing with the colour numbers last week and some of them don't appear different from each other. Others are totally different from yours.
@Duncan
Each version of Excel, post 2003, renders colors slightly differently
Different language versions may also have different default color palettes
Hello in french
excel 2010
colo1 = couleur1 = black
[couleur1]; [couleur2]; etc..
@Hui, thank you very much again for this great post.
However - under Excel 2007, Hungarian version your solution does not work with color names. I've tried both English and Hungarian names, but drops an error message "not valid formats"
Do you have any idea how to solve this issue?
thanks in advance
@Andras
Without a Hungarian version of Excel 2003 I don't think I can assist
Have you tried using the colour numbers? I couldn't get the names to work (despite using an english version of excel). but it did work with the numbers though. I left out the "u" and was easily able to produce burgundy using [color9]
Here a possible solution: find an English version of Excel, write there the formats using English names, then open the file in the Hungarian version and see the translation.
In Excel 2007 I can't get the colour names to work e.g Sea Green but the numbers do e.g color3 - colour3 does not work so I must bow to the country that has stolen my language (ha ha!)
Hey chandoo, nice Tip!
Wouldn't be easier just apply some conditional formatting for negative numbers and another for positive numbers? Or there's some cases that you can't do that?
Unfortunately the TEXT function doesn't color the cell as number formatting does.
Hi Hui,
Great post Sir, love the new way of formatting with color numbers.
I am using 2007, and it leads me to the last color number 56.
Thanks Hui.
[…] explains how to set up custom number formats with a wide array of […]
Thanks Hui - works a treat!
Thank you, very helpful.
Trying to figure out if it is possible to apply color only to a part of the cell?
E.g. I have a value formatted as Accounting with a currency symbol.
Those I find somewhat distracting though necessary. If I could make them less obtrusive by coloring them gray while the number would stay black, that would be great. Tried tinkering with the format string, but didn't get the desired result. Single color for complete cell value works, but coloring just part of it could not be achieved. Maybe somebody managed that?
Exactly what I was looking for - thank you!
colour in the Australian doesn't work - we have to go American and no problem.
I always thought is was 56 colours notice you have 57. Cool.
thanks
Analir Pisani
Customised Microsoft Office Training Specialist
Sydney - Australia
http://www.azsolutions.com.au
Thank You!