Conditional Formatting not applying consistently

Sara Morris

I have a sheet with conditional formatting rules so that if there is a "0" in a cell the text will be gray and if there is a negative number it will be red. If I close the sheet and then open it again the conditional formatting does not show, but if I go into the setting and basically pretend to change the formatting it will save and show the colors. After I do that any time that criteria is met the formatting sticks, but as soon as I leave and come back it happens again.

There are underlying formulas to the data so I suppose that can be the issue, but I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced this issue. It is the first time I have seen it and we use conditional formatting often. 

Mike Wilday

That is peculiar. I would report that to support. Let us know what you figure out. 

Chris McKay

Hi Sara,

It is a known bug and I've been advised that Smartsheet is working on a resolution.

anthonye_price

Has this bug been fixed? I have half my sheet the conditional formatting is working and the bottom half it is not.

Genevieve P.

Hi @anthonye_price

This is an older thread from 2018 and there have been multiple updates to Smartsheet since then, yes. Can you clarify what your specific scenario is, and post screen captures of your sheet and formatting rules? (Blocking out sensitive data)

Thanks!

Genevieve

anthonye_price

After awhile on the phone with support. We figured out that the new lines in the project did not have the formula in the Ancestor and Children rows. We have them hidden in the project. By unhiding them we figured it out. By dragging the formula down it worked correctly.

Genevieve P.

That's good to hear!

An alternative to dragging down formulas is to set them as a Column Formula (depending on the syntax). This way you can be confident it will update no matter where rows are added.

Cheers,

Genevieve