OVERVIEW

Hello and welcome back. This week will center on cell evaluation functions for highlighting data or
limiting user input. We will begin by learning functions that evaluate cell values and apply a
corresponding a format. Conditional Formatting is useful when visualizing values or trends within a data
set. We will move on to discuss Data Validation used to control or limit data entries by your users. You
will be asked to create worksheets that guide users to make valid entries and/ or to highlight particular
information. Remember to take notes as they will be helpful for you in your future applications of your
learnings from this week.

At the end of this week, you will be able to:

a. define cell format to highlight or emphasize relationships between data points (e.g. highest to lowest);
and
b. create a user interface to guide users through data validation either by limiting or correcting user
entries.

2.2.1 Demonstration: Conditional Formatting

Conditional Formatting is used to spot trends and patterns in data using visuals to highlight important
values. The following options can be found under the Conditional Formatting button which is found
under the home tab, so first you select the data and then click the button. Under highlight cell rules
which is the first option under that tab, you have an option of seven, seven rules to highlight certain
cells. We’ll start with greater than, so when you select greater than, it allows you to select the value for
which to start in highlight your selection.

So first we highlight the values greater than 1 with the light red color and from the range, you can see all
your values greater than 1. Before you move on to the next formatting, remember to clear the rules
which is on the bottom of that drop-down menu; so clear rules from the selected cells. Same goes for
Less than and Equal to, you are asked for one value that matches your selection, and then in this case
there is no value that matches 2, but if we pick one let’s say .5 we can easily see that there is one
entry that is equal to .5, so again let’s clear the rules. For our next function, still under conditional
formatting we can select the top and bottom rules, we can select the upper ten or the top 10 items, so
this is the first one, so it automatically highlights the top 10 values of your selected range.
Do keep in mind that if you have 10—only 10 entries, it will select everything in those 10 cells, so to give
you an example, there so it highlights everything because I just selected 10 cells. Same goes for the
bottom 10. On the other hand, the top 10 percent from your range can be selected based on the
values of your selection, so the top 10 percent falls only above 3.63 in this case, and for the bottom, 10
percent—there’s .25, we can also select the above average and below average based on the data set,
then we can still select color fill or the gradient tool, highlight your selection… okay so clear. Our next
functionality under conditional formatting is Data Bars, this allows you to highlight the difference across
your data sets using a gradient fill or a solid fill, it’s easier to reference values against each other in your
whole data set, feel free to change the colors under the more rules function. For color scales, you can
also select under conditional formatting color scales wherein we highlight the rage of values and assign
colors to the higher values, in this case the lower values are in red and the higher values are in green,
and there is a gradient from red, yellow, to green. Again, you can choose just one color gradient across
your data set or two. For Icon Sets, we can highlight icons for each of the values that you see, so based
on the average or on the midpoint of your set you can see that your middle values are—or have an icon
beside them, the yellow icon,
the yellow arrow, and then the lower values have a red arrow pointing downward, we clear
the rules.
So to recap, Conditional Formatting allows the user to represent your data in cells,
ranges or tables by usually indicating them according to your set of parameters.
So it is under the home tab, the conditional formatting
button and then your set of rules.

2.3.1 Demonstration: Data Validation

For Data Validation, please select Data Validation from your worksheets.
Data Validation is used to limit the types of data entered into a cell.
It can be found under the data tab, the ribbon under—the ribbon group data tools and you will find 3
options, so we’ll start with Data Validation, and on the first tab you can see the first dropdown menu
which allows you as the author of the worksheet to limit the values inside the cell that you are working
on, we can start with any value which is essentially the default, you can specify a whole number as an
entry, decimal, you can create a dropdown list for each cell, you can specify a date or a time and a limit
to text length. So on your worksheet, you can see that each data, each column has its own data
requirement, so we’ll begin with whole number, so if we type in 0.2 it will return an error code, or an
error message and asks the user to try again, you can select data validation and we define the whole
number, then, we can define a minimum which can be anywhere from 50 to a maximum of a hundred
and I can specify that it is between those two data sets or not between, so in this example, pick a
number between 50 and a hundred so 56, if you put a decimal again within that data range 57.2 it still
will return an error message, any value less than 50 will return an error message. For decimal, it allows
us to—similar to the whole number, it allows us to specify that users enter a value that has a decimal
point but still between a certain number or greater than or less than a certain number. So for this
example we have 5.5 as the lower end and 20.5, here we are allowed to input 6.7 but we aren’t allowed
to input 100.9. As for this column under direct list, it allows the author—you as the author to select a list
of entries from—a list which i’ll specify here as five colors so you can only select any of
the 5 colors from that list. If I do enter something else that is not part of that list let’s say bluish, it will
return an error message. As for the dates, it requires a specific format. So if we look at the data
restriction, the data validation is set to date but the dates can also be set between a range, in this case
should be sooner or earlier than December 31, so if we put 30/12 it allows for that input but if we enter
for this year or the current year, it won’t allow us to do so. For time, you are allowed to set also the
range or the time of day still with the data restriction between certain time or not between a certain
time so in this example it’s 12am to 12pm. For military time, if you were to enter military time because it
is still outside that range it still won’t be allowed. So this is a—a limit on text length so it will only allow
for 3 characters, but will not allow for a 5 character entry. For the last functionality, we can look at data
validation, for these cells selected custom—it only allows the user to type in the cell if the formula set in
this third dropdown menu is equal to red, so based on this data set, this column only allows for entries if
the column under or the cell under this column is equal to red in this case it allows me to enter the word
yellow and I am not allowed to enter any value, it returns the wrong data, see input in the list column.
So under data validation you can also check if—you can also select the input message if you want to
specify your introduction, it’s the only value that has red so if I type in here this is allowed but if I were
to type here, this is not allowed from this list. Data validation also enables us to circle an invalid data
input or to clear those circles. For our input message, we can type in our title and we’re basing it on our
minimum and maximum so any value, any whole number between 50 and 100. It allows us to show a
message for the cell that we selected and give us short—list of instructions or short message for it.
Data validation also allows us to create an error alert or a warning or simply an information bubble, so in
our earlier example if we base it here, it only tells us that the values in H—column H have to be equal to
the text string red but i’m still allowed to enter any value even if it is wrong. So the 3 types of data
validation error messages or error alerts are: to stop, to warn the user, or to just inform the user. From
the same example we can circle invalid data based on the wrong entry that this cell is not red but if I
correct it and again I select it, this is already allowed. If I return this one, the error remains and then we
can clear validation circles from the sheet.

This week, you were taught features that evaluate contents of cells and user input.
You learned to use Conditional Formatting to highlight and emphasize data in cells.
You are expected to use these features to organize information in the spreadsheet.
The Data Validation part has equipped you to create an interactive user interface.
You are expected to integrate guides and limits for data entry for more effective user input.
You are near the halfway mark of this course.
I wish you luck!