Home Archives for Compare lists in Excel
August 23, 2012 1 Comment

How to Highlight Different Values in a Row with Excel’s Go To Special

Go To Special Dialog Box

Go To Special – Row Differences

I have published several video tutorials on the topic of Highlighting and Deleting Duplicate Records in Excel. However, a viewer recently asked me how to highlight cells that contain different values in the same Row. This is not as “crazy” as it first seems.

Scenario for this Tutorial

I am trying to determine accurate inventory counts for my product line. I have the count that the computer shows. I also have records from three different auditors who have performed manual counts. I need to easily highlight the cells where the inventory count “is off.” That is where there is a discrepancy between what the computer shows and what a manual count shows.

Go To Special Dialog Box

The commands in the Go To Special Dialog Box are some of my favorite tools. In my experience, I have found that most Excel users have never explored this dialog box.  I think that will change after you watch this video tutorial. For the Row Differences tool, you first select the range of cells that contain your data – beginning with the left-most column. The Row Differences will use this left-most column as the “baseline” and highlight each cell in that row that contains a value that is different from this baseline.

Sorting & Filtering by Color

Beginning with Excel 2007, you can Sort by Color and you can also Filter by Color. After the cells were highlighted with the Row Differences command, I applied a background cell color to each highlighted cell.

Use one of my favorite Keyboard Shortcuts, Ctrl + Shift + L, when working with Filters in Excel 2007 or Excel 2010.

Watch this Excel Tutorial in High Definition

You can watch this tutorial in High Definition on my YouTube Channel – DannyRocksExcels.  Click on this link to watch this video now.

Video Tutorials for Highlighting Duplicate Records

I mentioned that I have published many Excel Tutorials on the Topic of Highlighting & Removing Duplicate Records. Here are links to my tutorials:

Shop for Excel Training Resources

I invite you to visit my secure online shopping website – http://shop.thecompanyrocks.com – to examine and purchase the many training resources that I offer.

Watch My Video Podcasts on iTunes

Click on this link to watch my “Danny Rocks Tips and Timesavers” video podcast on iTunes. – It is free of charge!

 Note: The original Podcast Video did not have the correct video settings. This video has now been updated.

 

How to Highlight Different Values in a Row in Excel [ 4:34 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2169)
Link to this post!
Filed Under: Excel Training, Keyboard Shortcuts, New in Excel 2007, New in Excel 2010, Podcast Tips & Timesavers Tagged: , , , , , , ,
January 30, 2011 3 Comments

How to Use Conditional Formatting to Compare Two Excel Lists

Clients and viewers frequently ask me to help them to compare two differeny lists in Excel. They want to find – or highlight – the values that are different in each list. For example, which customers appear in the 1st list but NOT in the 2nd list. So, I created this video lesson to demonstrate how to do this with Conditional Formatting.

In an earlier Excel Video Lesson, I demonstrated how to compare two Excel lists using either the MATCH() Function or the VLOOKUP() Function.

Conditional Formatting Rule

Conditional Formatting Rule

Use Conditional Formatting

I demonstrate how to use Conditional Formatting to Highlight the Cell Values that are different when you compare two Excel Lists. I will use a “New Rule with a Formula” that must return the answer TRUE, to trigger the special formatting.

In Conditional Formatting, you first establish a “condition” that can be answered as either TRUE or FALSE. Then, for those cells where the answer to the condition is TRUE. the special “cell formatting” that you chose will apply.

In this lesson we will be using this Formula: =COUNTIF(List 2, 1st cell in List 1) = 0.

Steps to follow:

  1. Select the cells that you want the Conditional Formatting to apply to- in our example List 1.
  2. On the Home Tab of the Ribbon, click the Conditional Formatting arrow and select New Rule.
  3. Select New Rule – “Use a Formula to determine which cells to format.”
  4. Enter the formula – e.g. =COUNTIF(Range, Criteria) = 0 where the “Range” is the list of values in List 2 (Absolute Reference) and the “Criteria” is the 1st cell reference in List 1 (Relative Reference).
  5. Choose the Format for the cells when the condition is met – the result is TRUE. In this example, I choose to “FILL” the cells with a Blue background color.

Want to watch this video in High Definition, Full-Screen Mode? Click here to go to my YouTube Channel, DannyRocksExcels

Learn to “Master Excel in Minutes – Not Months!”

How to Use Conditional Formatting to Compare Two Excel Lists [ 8:33 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1495)
Link to this post!
Filed Under: Conditional Formatting, COUNTIF and SUMIF Functions, Excel Formulas, Excel Training, Podcast Tips & Timesavers Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,