7. Color Scales, Data Bars and Icon Sets

An ordinary rule colors a cell only when its condition is met. Visual rules color every number in the range by where it sits between the minimum and the maximum, so the table turns into a heat map by itself.

• Color Scale "red – yellow – green": the minimum is red, the median is yellow, the maximum is green. A two-color scale runs from white to green;
• Data Bars: the length of the bar is proportional to the number, from zero (or from the minimum if there are negative values) to the maximum;
• Icon Set "3 Arrows": ▲ is the top third of the values (67% and up), ▶ is the middle third (33% and up), ▼ is the bottom third.

In Excel: Home › Conditional Formatting › Color Scales / Data Bars / Icon Sets. You can adjust the thresholds under Manage Rules; the trainer uses Excel's default thresholds.

Don't color everything. One scale on the key metric reads better than three rules on every column.