Can I conditional format specific cells only?

Jena Heath

I only want the rows under my "STATUS" parent row to change colors.

If status is less than 0, turn red. If 0 or greater, turn green.

I figured out a workaround, but it's still turning other numbers in the column green.

If I try to define a custom criteria when in the rule, it only allows for specific numbers, not the cell or row itself under that column:

For example, I cold select -5.5 or -9.5, but as soon as those numbers change the formatting rule no longer works.

I'm migrating this over from Excel, and I know SmartSheet isn't Excel. But I want to know if I can conditional format only specific cells or rows. The same rule parameters would apply to the entire row (not column!)

Thanks in advance!

David Joyeuse

Hi @Jena Heath

Default option for conditional formatting is to display values that are already in the column you want to condition formatting on.

Select "Define custom criteria" above the window to select options like greater than 0 or not. (Watch out for the checkbox to use the opposite option: "Condition is not met", of what you selected).

Now if you want to change the background color of the whole row, replace "AIA column" by "entire row" by clicking on it.

David Joyeuse

Hi @Jena Heath

Default option for conditional formatting is to display values that are already in the column you want to condition formatting on.

Select "Define custom criteria" above the window to select options like greater than 0 or not. (Watch out for the checkbox to use the opposite option: "Condition is not met", of what you selected).

Now if you want to change the background color of the whole row, replace "AIA column" by "entire row" by clicking on it.

Lloyd Kim

I think it's not possible. Currently smartsheet conditional formatting is limited. I came over from google sheets and i'm extremely disappointed at this lacking feature.

Julius W

is there a way to only conditional format cells with %?

I have a table that is rated 1-4 in each cell. I then do a countif for any that are 3 or more and formated the cell for the answer as a %.

I want to only format the cells with a % as red or green depending on what that % is. However, since I use 1-4 I can't say "if the number is higher than 0.74 turn green" because everything turns green.

Can I make it to only select cells that are formatted to % and ignore the rest?

I figure if I wanted to create new columns and then move all of the calculations and then only format those columns would work, but then I have multiple places to look at and can get confusing. I prefer not moving them if I don't have to.