On / Off conditional formatting with this simple trick

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Here is a quick & awesome way to make your dashboards sexy. Add an on / off switch to your conditional formats.

Take a look at this demo to understand what I mean:

toggle-cf-tip

How to add on/off switch to conditional formatting

The trick is to use stop if true feature in your conditional formatting rules screen.

Let’s say you have a few rules in your CF.

  1. Set up a form control check box to toggle the conditional formats
  2. Link it to a cell, let’s say $H$2
  3. Set up a new conditional formatting rule that checks for =NOT($H$2)
  4. No need to set any formatting options for this.
  5. Move this rule to the top in conditional formatting manage rules screen
  6. Check stop if true option for this new rule.
  7. You are done. If your user unchecks the form control, the conditional formats won’t be applied.

on-off-conditional-formats-stop-if-true-option

Related: Introduction to conditional formatting.

Download example workbook

Click here to download the example workbook. Examine the conditional formatting rules to learn how to do this.

Switch on your Excel awesomeness

Conditional formatting is one of the many ways to impress your boss. Learn about other advanced Excel skills and important formulas to make you a rock star at work.

Do you set up on/off switches for CF?

In most of my dashboards, I have something similar. These will help declutter the report.

What about you? How do you add such switches to your reports? Share your tips in the comments section.

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15 Responses to “Christmas Gift List – Set your budget and track gifts using Excel”

  1. [...] Christmas Gift List – Set your budget and track gifts using Excel … [...]

  2. JP says:

    I'm confused: if you spend $10, and your budget is $40, shouldn't the amount in the "Within Budget?" column stay black, since you didn't go over budget?

    In other words, since we overspent on the electronic photo frame, shouldn't the $8 cell turn red?

  3. Chandoo says:

    @JP.. maybe Steven is encouraging consumerism... ?

    I havent realized it earlier, but now I see it. If you unprotect the sheet, you can change the formula in Column I to =IF(G13=0;" ";F13-G13) from =IF(G13=0;" ";G13-F13), that should correct the behavior.

  4. JP says:

    Thanks Chandoo. I thought of making a shopping list spreadsheet for Christmas, but this is neat so I think I'll use this instead.

  5. chrisham says:

    Chandoo & Steven thanks for this spreadsheet. But for the sake of a person who has been staring at this megaformula in vain for the last 40 mins and not afraid to ask, would it be possible for you to walk us through the logic used here?

    =SUM(SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET($K$13:$K$62,ROW($K$13:$K$62)-MIN(ROW($K$13:$K$62)),0,1)),--($K$13:$K$62="-"))+SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET($K$13:$K$62,ROW($K$13:$K$62)-MIN(ROW($K$13:$K$62)),0,1)),--($K$13:$K$62="0")))&" / "&SUBTOTAL(2,$G$13:$G$62)

  6. Tea Bag.. says:

    Thanks Chandoo.. This is one of the best budget spreadsheets I've ever seen.. The Arrays are out of this world!! And it's FREE!!
    Chandoo, can you tell us more about Steven? Does he have his own site?

  7. Steven says:

    JP, I think Chandoo changed it when he changed the currency formatting from £ to $, a negative figure is a good thing in this case. But don't change the formulas, the overbudget and under budget won't work properly if you do. Also Chandoo I think you've accidentally broke the conditional formatting for the alternating row colouring the formula is different to the version I sent you. As for the megaformula chrisham, it gave me a headache trying to get it all working, so I will let Chandoo talk you through it.

  8. savithri says:

    Hi,
    In cells I6 and I7, I understand that subtotal together with offset function returns an array of ones after which, the sumproduct function gives the desired result.
    But I’m not able to figure out the reason for using an array in I8 to return the most expensive gift.
    Can’t the formula be just
    “=VLOOKUP(SUBTOTAL(4,$G$13:$G$62),$G$13:$J$62,4,0)”

  9. Steven says:

    Savithri, Cell I8 needs the array, if the formula was “=VLOOKUP(SUBTOTAL(4,$G$13:$G$62),$G$13:$J$62,4,0)” it would find the highest price from the filtered range (i.e. highest actual in filtered range is $50) BUT then return the first person with that actual, not looking in just the filtered range (so first person on the list with a $50 actual.)
    To see what I mean, change the formula, then change all the actuals to $50 then filter for baby, it lists the first name on the list.
    But a good question 🙂

  10. savithri says:

    Thank you. I now realise that the array is used to get the ‘filtered range’ instead of the entire range, as table array for look up value.

  11. AprMarie7 says:

    this looks like an awesome excel sheet!! is there anyway i can get it emailed to me unprotected? for some reason, i am unable to download it 🙁 help!!

  12. Danny says:

    Hi I also can not download to a mac as the sheet is protected any help would be great

  13. [...] to send her a pricey present. Rather, send a card with a picture of your child. Here’s a cool Excel sheet that will help you estimate your budget per person and let you track [...]

  14. [...] husband and I pour/poor over the Christmas spreadsheet (yes, I do know how dorky that sounds, but we’re not the only ones!), figuring out who should give what to whom. We live at a distance from most of our family, so it [...]

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