One Conditional Formatting Rule Not Taking Priority

Carly Chaput

I apply a similar strategy of conditional formatting to a lot of sheets and don't usually have any issues, but on this one sheet, I have a rule that's listed above the others, but it's not taking precedent over the other formatting rules and I'm not understanding why. I have a cascade of blue colors to denote "header" tasks, but whenever a task has 0 children, I just want it to look plain, regardless of what "level" it is in the indent hierarchy. In my picture you an see the level and children column, and you can see the tasks with 0 children still taking on the rule for tasks that are level 2, despite it being lower in the rules hierarchy. Can anyone help me understand why or if there is a better method for achieving this?

Carson Penticuff

Is the cell color for the "children is 0" condition set to "no background" or "white"? I have found that using "no background" is sometimes (maybe all the time?) treated as not having it set at all. If that is the case, maybe try specifically setting it to white.

Carson Penticuff

Is the cell color for the "children is 0" condition set to "no background" or "white"? I have found that using "no background" is sometimes (maybe all the time?) treated as not having it set at all. If that is the case, maybe try specifically setting it to white.

Carly Chaput

That was exactly the issue, very insightful, thank you so much!!

Carson Penticuff

Happy to help. I won't mention how long it took me to realize the issue when this first happened to me.

BraylenStanton

The priorities of conditional formatting are determined not only by the order in which the rules are followed, but also by their specific conditions. Perhaps the condition specified in the formatting rule for level 2 issues is more specific and therefore applies to issues with 0 children. To resolve the issue, try changing the conditions in the formatting rule for level 2 issues so that it does not fire for issues with 0 children. This may require more careful definition of the conditions, perhaps using functions or formulas.