VIDEO: How to Add Status Indicators in Excel spreadsheets

To create a new status indicator in Excel, follow these steps.

This Excel tutorial explains how to use conditional formatting to add icons, such as progress bars, traffic lights, and ratings to a cell in Excel (with screenshots and step-by-step instructions).

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Video: Add Indicators, Shapes, and Ratings Automatically to Excel

In this video, we show how to add different types of icons to your Excel spreadsheet.

How to Add Indicators, Shapes, and Ratings Automatically to Excel

Excel has several predefined presets you can use to apply conditional formatting to your data.

They are grouped into three categories:

• Data Bars are horizontal bars added to each cell, much like a bar graph.
• Color Scales change the color of each cell based on its value. Each color scale uses a two- or three-color gradient.
• Icon Sets add a specific icon to each cell based on its value.

To Add icons to an Excel spreadsheet:

1. Select the cells you want to format.

2. Click the icon on the lower right as shown above or on the Home tab, click Conditional Formatting.

3. Scroll down to Icon Sets.
4. Select the icons set you require.

In the New Formatting window, you can also modify the sets by creating new rules and changing the values of the icons.

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