Excel Conditional Formatting with Symbols and Icons (for better reports)

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This video shows you how how you can use your custom Symbols in Excel and conditionally format them to change color depending whether a condition is met or not.
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Discover how to visually enhance your Excel project timelines. Using custom symbols and conditional formatting, easily identify completed tasks, overdue items, and upcoming deadlines. Ideal for efficient project tracking and management.
1️⃣ Setting the Stage:
Project Timeline: A table with tasks, start dates, working days, and end dates calculated using the WORKDAY function.
Today's Date: Use =TODAY() to automatically update the current date.
Task Completion Status: Column indicating task completion with "Y" for "Yes".
2️⃣ Selecting Custom Symbols:
Source: Use symbols from the "Wingdings" font for a unique look.
Symbols for Different Statuses:
Completed Tasks: A tick mark (✅).
Upcoming Tasks: A clock symbol (🕒).
Overdue Tasks: A different symbol for urgency (⚠️).
3️⃣ Implementing Symbols in Excel:
Character Codes: Remember the character codes for each symbol for easy reference and formula integration.
Font Adjustment: Ensure cells are formatted in the "Wingdings" font to display symbols correctly.
4️⃣ Conditional Formatting Setup:
Nested IF Formulas: Create formulas using the IF and CHARACTER functions to display appropriate symbols based on task status and current date.
Applying Conditional Formatting:
Completed Tasks: Green color and bold font.
Overdue Tasks: Red color and bold font.
Upcoming Tasks: Light gray color or default formatting.
5️⃣ Adapting to Changes:
Flexibility: Update task completion status or deadlines, and watch symbols and colors change automatically, providing real-time project insights.
6️⃣ Enhancing Readability:
Styling: Center-align tasks, add borders, and adjust cell spacing for a clean, professional look.
The video shows an example of a project timeline and how symbols can be added to notify you on weather the deadline is met in time, whether it's already over due and which tasks are still open.
You can use your own custom symbols in Excel and conditionally format them. You don’t have to choose between the icon sets available to you within Conditional Formatting, but instead choose pretty much any symbol you’d like and conditionally format this instead.
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#excel

[@LeilaGharani]

Grab the file I used in the video from here 👉 pages.xelplus.com/cond-formatting-symbols

[@gilenomascarenhas6693]

Let's be honest here, folks. She is a Excell goddess. Thank you, milady!

[@MuhammadNasirQayyum]

Thanks a lot professor. I always seek help from you tutorials. Your work is worth appreciating. Stay blessed.

[@excelisfun]

Love it! Copying invisible characters using CHAR to make the spreadsheet look awesome : )

[@LeilaGharani]

You're welcome :)

[@devnipadmasiri1765]

This is the best excel course ever. Thanks a lot madam

[@KumarAnalytic]

Sister thanks, heartily appreciate you helped me to be a Master in my office without any cent. I want to gift you from my country India.

[@sundareshperi]

Excellent. Simple, clear, well modulated, technically right, anticipating doubts & clarifying and above all pleasant. Good teaching is a gift of Nature. God Bless you Leila with all prosperity and long fruitful life.

[@LeilaGharani]

Thank you so much for the kind words S Peri. I've very glad to hear you find it well presented.

[@user-ii7qg6vl9f]

I salute you for this video, you are a genius !!

[@SteveSwanson999]

Leila, another example relevant content, well presented. I've been watching for a while and you have continued to improve in all aspects of your videos. GOOD ON YOU!

[@LeilaGharani]

That's great to hear. Thank you for the feedback!

[@hoiyinwan8233]

Your videos are so different from others. I have learned a lot from you , thank you so much.

[@LeilaGharani]

I'm glad you like the videos! Thank you for your feedback & support.

[@tonyng6448]

That's an excellent tutorial and can help my work alot, thank you.

[@HappyheartbyNida]

Its so easy that you describe. You always help me. GOD Bless you. Thanks 👍

[@tetianagrabovska5175]

It helped a lot, thank you!

[@Hildgud]

Looks and brains, Leila got both! Thank you for the help.

[@LeilaGharani]

My pleasure :)

[@craigvoss1468]

Great example and explanation for personalizing your report .

[@LeilaGharani]

Thanks Craig.

[@QuickMadeUpName]

Nice. Very creative.

[@1gopalakrishnarao]

Thanks a lot. Doing a great job in excel. Please I expect some more in the days to come in VBA. Your knowledge in Excel is superb.

[@LeilaGharani]

You're welcome Gopala. Yes - a VBA series is still on my list :)

[@1gopalakrishnarao]

Please. I am waiting eagerly to learn from scratch. Please explain in detail.

[@eazyanalytics4561]

Thanks for sharing ,easy to learn

[@triplex86]

Excellent video - thank you

[@jadoabad]

Great as always!

[@LeilaGharani]

Thanks Rosebud.

[@ketandave3273]

Really good one. Total dynamic & no need to use menu command. Formulas give total freedom to organize customized templates. Please show some name manager tricks.

[@quentinbricard]

Thanks a lot! Great video!

[@eng.hafizhabibhabib1268]

thanks leila very very good

[@yohannesalmaw1414]

You are so smart everything you explain makes sense and easy to learn. Thank you for your contribution. I wish you to be a university professor

[@LeilaGharani]

Thank you for the kind words - but smart is pushing it... I actually do teach at universities :)

[@yohannesalmaw1414]

Can you give me a clue to use some hyperlink functions for combining Excel and Google map? I tried but its not as good as it was supposed to be

[@christoskonstantinou1074]

Simple an understandable... Congratulations

[@LeilaGharani]

Thank you. Glad you like it.

[@ajinkyanaik6651]

Please upload such more videos

[@loganathankannan1989]

very good presentation also i am always taking many ideas from this site

[@LeilaGharani]

That's great to hear! I'm glad you find the content useful.

[@ExcelExpert25390]

very helpful video thanx☺

[@LeilaGharani]

You're welcome Farrukh.

[@junaidKhan-vu6nm]

Wow💖 U have any video abut adding button with icon and making gurp them??

[@GopalSingh-be1ip]

Thank You

[@jasonipfatsiong2062]

Thank you

[@erickramos8760]

Thank you very very much!

[@LeilaGharani]

You're very welcome Erick.

[@MohammadrezaIzadineshat]

خیلی ممنون لیلا جان///

[@pytchyouhheradi6720]

very informative tutorial

[@LeilaGharani]

I'm glad to hear that.

[@hanyfouda3249]

Hello , Thanks for your effort I just need to know whats is the difference between CHAR (80) and CHAR(137) in your example

[@yazeedaloqaily5271]

thanks

[@farioprastawa7178]

Thanks a lot profesor, it great solution. But would you main to solve my problem one more. How to auto shrink text in shape ?, Please help 🙏

[@sorenweisshartmann]

Thanks a lot. Would it be possible to do the same using conditional formatting, but not typing the formula in each cell? Like if you have a massive project plan? Thanks :)

[@Sal_A]

Pretty cool. Makes me wonder if we could use symbols in pivot table slicers!?

[@LeilaGharani]

Interesting question - Just tested it and yes we can :) Excel is great! We just have to update the font type of the slicer to be the same as the cell font - or alternatively like Michael suggested below we can use unichar and then we can stay in the default font type. That should work too. That gives me a good video idea....thanks for the interesting question.

[@APG_Creativity]

Hi, Can You Tell How to change the Rating Iconsets color in conditional formatting.?

[@dipinc]

Can u please make a video about getting alert in excel sheet If price move above particular range we need to get alert in different excel sheet Can u make 4 me?

[@brittanyalston9949]

Hi Lelia, I used your video on how to put character on an excel spreadsheet. I changed it up a little and am needing help! I have a column for a follow up date and then i have a column that will show either a check mark when the date is < today date and a telephone when the date is > today date. I am trying to add on here if my column (followup date) is blank to leave formula column blank. Here is my current formula, with D3 being my Follow Up Column and A1 being my Todays Date: =IF(D3A1,CHAR(254)))

[@eyalshlesinger7843]

Great

[@LeilaGharani]

Thank you Eyal.

[@nfrick1]

Nice video. Just one point: the E3"Y" at 6:38 seems redundant for me, as the IF's formula first condition is E3="Y".

[@LeilaGharani]

You're right. It's redundant. Thanks :)

[@yousufyaseen8379]

Can we use conditional formatting in a text box value?

[@kyfparacha]

Hi. I am wanting make a list where when i watch an episode of a tv series; i need to get: a tick, not seen: a cross & incomplete episode: a - my word for excel to check in a column is "SxxExx" meaning "SO2E04", etc. Could you please give me. Thanks

[@michaeldiamond2726]

Hi Leila, Get Video! I was playing with using the Unichar function and I could get most of the symbols (except for the clock but I know it is somewhere. If you use Unichar(9743) and unichar(10003) you'll get similar characters though not exactly the same. These are not impacted by the Font type - they'll show even in Arial. I think you can find all symbols using the Unichar function but it is time consuming because there are over 100000 unicode characters. Thank you for the video, great stuff! Michael

[@LeilaGharani]

Hi Michael, Thanks for the great input. You just solved one of my problems! It was to get a special symbol for the X-axis and the symbol I wanted wasn't in Arial - I needed the axis font to be Arial though, because of all the other labels! I found it with Unichar! Thank you!

[@michaeldiamond2726]

HI Leila, No, thank you for the great video. I always amazed at how you always put a clever spin on everything you do! I knew I had seen those characters somewhere before when I was working with the ASCII symbols. It is rather cool to just insert a column of numbers and drag the unichar character downwards. I tried looking at that unicode sheet that I had created in the custom formatting file but I was to rushed time. As I was playing with the code I noticed that a lot of characters that are showing up in the insert dialog box are there. Really cool stuff!

[@LeilaGharani]

True - it is really cool stuff! Love it!

[@kingb8454]

Fabulous info, but I need help with inserting more than one symbol in a cell. Specifically, the same symbol twice. I have a formula that inserts a symbol, but I'd like to update it so it will double the symbols in the cell. Here's the formula I have. =IF(H17-A17=1,CHAR(129),"") If H17-A17 is between 10 and 18, I'd like CHAR(129) to appear twice. Hopefully, you can help. Thanks so much!

[@prashantmahadik2988]

Hi , Do you have any related to the VBA - Mail Merge Function MSWord,MSExcell & VBA Please Suggest to me

[@PravinKherodkar]

wow and how about using symbols in gantt chart progress lines??? ;P

[@HariKrishnatirupathi]

Hi Leila, is it possible to create a table that changes colour based on input values in an another table. Thank you so much.

[@hongqirong9927]

Hi, you will have to use formulas such as if function, Nested If function or any formula that reference from the first table. Then apply conditional formatting as what was taught. Ms Leila has also other videos on using custom formatting rather than conditional formatting You can use that too. 4 SMART Ways to use Custom Formatting instead of Conditional Formatting Part 1 - kzbin.info/www/bejne/qni8aGOpmdWUgsU Excel's Custom Number Formatting with Conditions & Symbols Part 2 - kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJKzhIuEoLpkj5I&ab_channel=LeilaGharani Excel Custom Formatting with Thresholds & Icons Part 3 - kzbin.info/www/bejne/p3zTqXiiYsR8h5o&ab_channel=LeilaGharani Thanks.

[@rudi-gruber]

Hi Leila, great video. One question: why do I have to ask with an AND-Function in the second part of the formula. I think it would also work just asking for the date. Am I wrong? Greetings from Austria

[@LeilaGharani]

Hi Rudolf. You are absolutely right. No need for the and inside the 2nd if, because the first If, takes care of the "Y" matches. Formula would then be: =IF(E3="Y",CHAR(80),IF(D3

[@rudi-gruber]

You're welcome

[@armandolopez8349]

Hi. I would like to know if is possible , maybe with conditional Formatting or custom formatting show in a cell in bold or italics Thanks. Nice Video

[@LeilaGharani]

Yes - you can do that with conditional formatting. I'm uploading a video on this in the upcoming weeks, where we conditionally format a cell's number format based on a specific criteria....

[@armandolopez8349]

OK. Thanks for your answer. By the way, nice channel

[@gokulvs8321]

Hi madam, I am working with Microsoft excel 2003 in my company. I have a question regarding to conditional formatting... If I enter "yes" in A1 cell, the B5, B8, C12, D 15 cells should display as yellow colour filled... Also, if I enter anyother text than "yes", the above mentioned cells like B5, B8, etc... should be displayed as no fill or white filled cell... Pls give a suggestion regarding my issue with condiional formatting in excel 2003...

[@iecivil]

Hi, thank you for taking the efforts and sharing the concept. I work with a team and we have spreadsheets that is having conditional formatting, it often occurs that people mess up the conditional formatting by using the format painter or copy pasting cell. It seems like excel creates another copy of the rule whenever the cells containing conditional formatting are copied. Is there any way that I could lock conditional formatting without compromising the teams ability to collaborate.?

[@LeilaGharani]

Can't you protect the cells with conditional formatting or formulas and just leave the cells open for input?

[@iecivil]

@@LeilaGharani that's a good suggestion, I'll try it... But is it possible to lock the cells only for conditional formatting but allow users to put in text or even do manual formatting if required.?

[@Amigo-p7g]

Thanks Bety much, for this, is there a way yo create an animated chart with excel? How to animate mathematics process a a spring performance or a pistón process.how to make animation with imagens in excel ti simulate a process. Sorry if I ask for yo much features 😅, but are doubts that I can kit solve few time a go. thank hoy for yor answer, and best regards

[@LeilaGharani]

Hi Joe - Yes you can - as long as you can create the chart in Excel, you can animate it using VBA (macros), i.e. you can feed it different data (with the macro) and see the chart adjusting.... I'll add this to my list of future videos.

[@jayantakumarkar5323]

Can we use different Icons instead of Symbols ?

[@FnOTradingLearner]

How do I use say name from list when I enter code I mean like vlookup when I enter code I need name from list at same place throughout Excel. Like say in a2 I enter 5 and right click show me five from list or master

[@BS2Dos]

Hey Leila, do you know if it's possible to conditionally format shapes in excel?

[@LeilaGharani]

Hi Neil - If you use tricks yes. I have two videos coming up that conditionally format WordArt. One uses a little Excel trick (without VBA) and the other uses VBA. Is there any specific shape you'd like to format? Let me know. I like these type of topics....

[@BS2Dos]

Leila Gharani I’m building a report which uses four arrows to indicate whether four process milestones have been completed. A simple color change would be a great. What would be even better - and I don’t know if it’s possible, would be to have each arrow indicate the percentage complete as specific tasks within each process are completed. So, if 4/5 tasks were complete, then the arrow would be 80% complete. A bit like a stacked bar chart but applied to a shape. Hope you can help!

[@LeilaGharani]

Thanks Neil for the explanation. Yes an in-bar chart would be good to use here... and to fully control the control of the shape, regardless of the shape, VBA can be useful. I have similar videos that I'll be uploading in the next weeks that can help you get some ideas....

[@jp16]

How did you put the calender?

[@LeilaGharani]

That's just a screenshot....

[@mathyoutubermymensingh9415]

How to add double symbol in conditional formatting

[@asifborouge]

Good morning, Thanks for posting nice videos. I created conditional formatting for "A" (absent) on my duty schedule........ in the meaning, if any of my team members are not available to take up overtime call, I write "NA" (Not available).... Now the problem I face is the cell is highlighted for "NA" too and it is not desireable......... Is there any way to turn conditional formatting precise to the entry in the cell (means it should highlight only for "A" , not for any other word containing "A"). Thanks

[@hongqirong9927]

Hi, you can follow video from 08:15 onwards. In the selected cells however, you will input ="A" in that blank follow by what color it would be when it meets this criteria. You can do it for "NA" as the next input as you create another rule for conditional formatting for another color. You can do this for multiple times with different values for different colors until you are done. Do note that the rules of color coding is meant for the selected cells you have click on before inputing the conditions, it is not for the whole excel book. YOu can also try custom formatting which is less messy at the end of the day. Ms Leila has also other videos on using custom formatting rather than conditional formatting You can use that too. 4 SMART Ways to use Custom Formatting instead of Conditional Formatting Part 1 - kzbin.info/www/bejne/qni8aGOpmdWUgsU Excel's Custom Number Formatting with Conditions & Symbols Part 2 - kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJKzhIuEoLpkj5I&ab_channel=LeilaGharani Excel Custom Formatting with Thresholds & Icons Part 3 - kzbin.info/www/bejne/p3zTqXiiYsR8h5o&ab_channel=LeilaGharani

[@dmgbiwosh]

hello madam no more show font in excel sheet insert symbol

[@hareesh2357]

👌🏻👌🏻

[@gmo709]

So you need to take note of the character code ...and the font, to make this work.

[@VijayKumar-zd7ou]

Hello dear, my one query is how to many name a column and repeated some 4,5,3,7,2 time how to coloured at once in excel then sort by colour show grouping but every group show different different colour. Please help😂

[@Stan_sprinkle]

This channel is great. I love the "Excel magic tricks" guy too, but he stresses me out with his hyperactive voice haha (no offense to him, he's really good).

[@Harley04]

I just want a SIMPLE how to for Conditional Number Formatting, with both text AND fill colors, for zero, plus and minus, is that too much to ask KZbin?

[@hongqirong9927]

Ms Leila has also other videos on using custom formatting rather than conditional formatting You can use that too. 4 SMART Ways to use Custom Formatting instead of Conditional Formatting Part 1 - kzbin.info/www/bejne/qni8aGOpmdWUgsU Excel's Custom Number Formatting with Conditions & Symbols Part 2 - kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJKzhIuEoLpkj5I&ab_channel=LeilaGharani Excel Custom Formatting with Thresholds & Icons Part 3 - kzbin.info/www/bejne/p3zTqXiiYsR8h5o&ab_channel=LeilaGharani

[@keyanashtari2897]

I only came here because of the hot thumbnail

[@Harley04]

Have you seen "Hot for Words"? You are "Hot for Numbers"

[@KumarAnalytic]

could you please speak slowly as I have week English sometimes you speak faster, please it's humble request.

[@LeilaGharani]

I'll try :) you can also put the video to 0.5 speed....

[@KumarAnalytic]

there is no option in my KZbin app on Android phone. actually I. I'm from India and English is not my mother toungue hence I have slightly problem. actually many people like your​ Excel video when I share on my Facebook page. thanks to reply me. and thanks to make awesome tutorial I heartily appreciate you..

[@AmitSharma-ft7jb]

Sweet cutie..

[@hosseinhosseinpoor4845]

thanks