However, when the selection contains extra large values, like we see in row 11, the scale will be distorted, and make other values look more similar. With positive values, Excel will use zero for the minimum and the largest value for the maximum. When editing a data bar rule, you can specify a minimum and maximum, alter the bar appearance, the location of the axis (which is useful when some values are negative) and control the bar direction. Like other conditional formatting, data bar rules can be edited at any time using Manage Rules. When we select a preset, the data bar formatting is applied immediately. Except for the fill, these data bar presets are the same.Įxcel builds a live preview on the worksheet as we hover over each option. There are six presets for data bars with gradient fills, and six presets for data bars with solid fills. In the Conditional Formatting menu, data bars are a main category. As always, the first step is to select the cells we'd like to format. Let's use conditional formatting to display progress as a data bar.
And Column D shows the current funds raised per person. Column C shows that each person has a goal of $3,000. Here we have a simple table that tracks the progress of a group of people towards a fundraising goal.
They're great way to show the relative magnitude of values in a set of data. Data bars are one of the key types of conditional formatting in Excel.
