[excel] Conditional Formatting (IF not empty)

How do I conditionally format a cell so if not blank it is grey?

I tried to do 'not equal', but it didn't work.

I am using Windows Office 2003 with Windows XP at work. I don't see the same feature as below:

What I have tried so far:

Edit: Figured what was wrong. In my production (actual work Excel), they were filled with white color. It wasn't my Excel file, so I was not aware of this before.

This worked for me:

=NOT(ISBLANK(A1))

I wanted a box around NOT Blank cells in an entire worksheet. Use the $A1 if you want the WHOLE ROW formatted based on the A1, B1, etc result.

Thanks!

This method works for Excel 2016, and calculates on cell value, so can be used on formula arrays (i.e. it will ignore blank cells that contain a formula).

• Highlight the range.
• Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule > Use a Formula.
• Enter "=LEN(#)>0" (where '#' is the upper-left-most cell in your range).
• Alter the formatting to suit your preference.

Note: Len(#)>0 be altered to only select cell values above a certain length.

Note 2: '#' must not be an absolute reference (i.e. shouldn't contain '$').

In Excel 2003 you should be able to create a formatting rule like:

=A1<>"" and then drag/copy this to other cells as needed.

If that doesn't work, try =Len(A1)>0.

If there may be spaces in the cell which you will consider blank, then do:

=Len(Trim(A1))>0

Let me know if you can't get any of these to work. I have an old machine running XP and Office 2003, I can fire it up to troubleshoot if needed.

An equivalent result, "other things being equal", would be to format all cells grey and then use Go To Special to select the blank cells prior to removing their grey highlighting.

Does this work for you:

You find this dialog on the Home ribbon, under the Styles group, the Conditional Formatting menu, New rule....