Excel how to apply color scales to text cells

Leonard Fong 0 Reputation points
2026-07-21T20:56:15.97+00:00

Hello!

I am trying to figure out how to use color scales conditional formatting based on cells that are text, in Excel. Basically, I have a table of cells filled with a description and number. Example "America - 10". I want to apply the color scale to these descriptions. How can I do that?

I am trying to even separate the numbers in a separate table and can get the color scales based on just the numbers, but I don't know how to apply it to the description and number cells table.

Please help.

Best,

Leonard

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | Other | Windows

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  1. Lucus-V 10,425 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-07-23T19:35:07.9733333+00:00

    Hi Leonard Fong,

    It's better to provide a sample data so we can better assist.

    I presume that you have the same data structure as "America - 10" which formatted "Country - Point".

    You can fill the cell by:

    1. Text that contains... option in Conditional Formatting.
    2. Extract the point and apply color by formula:
      1. Conditional Formatting > Manage Rules... > New Rule...
      2. Choose Use a formula to determine which cells to format
      3. Format values where this formula is true: example =VALUE(TEXTAFTER(A1,"- "))>5
      4. Click Format... to set the cell formatting
      5. Apply

    Example screenshot:

    User's image

    If you have difficulties in any steps, please feel free to let me know.

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