Format negative numbers as red

1

As a hardcore excel user, I feel like an idiot here not being able to do simple things I’m used to.

How can I format negative numbers to show as red in a table?

Thanks.

2

You use the “Conditional Formatting” feature which is the icon that looks like “Aa” in the table config settings:

24

Like this…

/edit- you can choose which columns to change colour, or the entire row if you want. :slight_smile:

3

Thanks… this is much simpler. Here is what I did an not getting results

coda%20calc
coda calc.JPG1576×857 60.5 KB

I want anything that is < 0 to be red letters (not background). I realize I picked above zero… that’s not working either.

4

It looks like the problem is that it doesn’t know what number in the table you want to test. You just say “thisTable >0” instead of something like “thisTable.Month 1 < 0”.

/edit - this post might also be interesting. :wink: Listing all columns that are not blank

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5

I’m trying to keep it general as the user may add multiple columns which will also need to be conditional.

Any thoughts on why thisTable >0 isn’t working?

When I enter the >0, it goes from saying “-> 10 of 10 rows” to “-> 0 of 10 rows” like something isn’t right.

Thanks!

6

You have to check a specific column, not the entire table. Either that or you could create a hidden boolean column and set up logic to make it true if any of a number of columns are negative - then you can apply formatting based on the hidden column.

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7

That’s a clever way to do it. Not sure it would work as I can’t imagine it turning individual cells “conditional”. Please let me know if I’m not clear on this yet.

Your original solution seems like something that should work.

Thanks.

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8

If you check my example above you can see I’ve added a second table with a hidden column called “Negative?” that is used to drive the colour change. Simply add whichever columns you want checked to the formula.