OHSU's Software Forum

Bill Foust · Joined: 11 Apr 2008 Posts: 10

Excel doesn't provide a built-in format that you can apply to cells in your worksheet that will cause a negative percent to show in red. So... If you want negative percentages to show in red, you can apply conditional formatting, or you can create a custom format. I use a custom format; it's easy to create, and easy to use. Here's how.

1. Select a cell in your worksheet that you would like to have formatted with negative percentages in red. On the Home tab of the ribbon, in the "Cells" section, select the drop down arrow for formatting cells, and click on Format Cells.

2. In the dialog box that comes up ("Format Cells"), make sure the Number tab is selected, and click on Custom.

3. In the box just under the word "Type:", there is probably something entered. Delete it, and type in 0.00%;[Red]-0.00% and click OK.

4. Your new custom format has been applied to the active cell, and is now included in your list of custom formats. You can apply it to any other cell by selecting it from the list while formatting, or by using the format painter (yellow paintbrush in the clipboard section of the home tab).