Highlight Matching Cells with Text in Excel

Edited by Djinu, VisiHow, Eng

You're watching VisiHow. In this video, we're going to show you how to highlight a cell if its text matches another cell in Excel. In this video, we have two columns of data: column "D" with domain names that are currently available and column "C" with all of the domain names that we've searched. We want to highlight column "C" if the domain name is available.

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Steps

  1. 1
    Click column "C" to highlight it
    .
    Highlight a cell if text matches another cell.mp4-canvas23 745243.jpg
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  2. 2
    Click "Conditional Formatting"
    .
    Highlight a cell if text matches another cell.mp4-canvas29 197998.jpg
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  3. 3
    Click "Manage Rules..."
    Highlight a cell if text matches another cell.mp4-canvas31 757993.jpg
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  4. 4
    Then, click the "Show formatting rules for" drop-down menu
    .
    Then, check "Current Selection".
    Highlight a cell if text matches another cell.mp4-canvas34 626992.jpg
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  5. 5
    To create a new rule, click the plus button in the bottom left-hand corner of the window
    .
    Highlight a cell if text matches another cell.mp4-canvas36 08509.jpg
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  6. 6
    Click the "Style" drop-down menu and "Classic"
    .
    Highlight a cell if text matches another cell.mp4-canvas41 320991.jpg
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  7. 7
    Click the second drop-down menu
    .
    Then, click "Use a formula to determine which cells to format".
    Highlight a cell if text matches another cell.mp4-canvas45 560991.jpg
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  8. 8
    Click the third drop-down menu
    .
    Highlight a cell if text matches another cell.mp4-canvas47 58092.jpg
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  9. 9
    Type the formula "=countif($d$2:$d$500,c2)"
    .
    In this formula, the "$" sign means that it will have the absolute reference to the "D2" cell, that the reference is ended at the cell "D500", and that the highlighted cell will be "C2".
    Highlight a cell if text matches another cell.mp4-canvas91 00899.jpg
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  10. 10
    Click "Format with"
    .
    Highlight a cell if text matches another cell.mp4-canvas95 37491.jpg
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  11. 11
    For this tutorial, click "green fill with dark green text"
    .
    Highlight a cell if text matches another cell.mp4-canvas96 977058.jpg
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  12. 12
    Then, click "OK"
    .
    Highlight a cell if text matches another cell.mp4-canvas99 16599.jpg
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  13. 13
    Click "OK" again
    .
    Now, if the domain is available in column "D", it will be highlighted in column "C".
    Highlight a cell if text matches another cell.mp4-canvas101 733738.jpg
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That was how to highlight a cell if the information matches the information in another column. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the space below. Thanks for watching VisiHow!

Video: Highlight Matching Cells with Text in Excel

If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.

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Categories : Microsoft Suites

Recent edits by: VisiHow, Djinu

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