Skip to main content

Kutools for Office ā€” One Suite. Five Tools. Get More Done.

How to conditional format cells based on first letter/character in Excel?

Author Siluvia Last modified

With the conditional formatting function, you can highlight all cells based on first letters in a list of data in Excel. For example, you can highlight all cells which the first letters are A among the data. This tutorial will help you apply conditional formatting to cells based on the first letter in Excel.

Conditional format cells based on first letter/character in Excel

Conditional format cells based on first letter/character in Excel

For example, you have a list of data in range A2:A8 as below screenshot shown. If you want to highlight all cells where the first letter is A in the list, please do as follows.

A screenshot showing an Excel list with cells to be conditionally formatted based on the first letter

1. Select the range A2:A8.

2. Then click Conditional Formatting > New Rule under Home tab to create a new conditional formatting rule. See screenshot:

A screenshot of selecting New Rule under Conditional Formatting in Excel

3. In the New Formatting Rule dialog box, please do as follows step by step.

1). In the Select a Rule Type section, select Use a formula to determine which cells to format;
2). Copy and paste formula =LEFT(A2,1)="A" into the Format values where this formula is true box;
Note: paying more attention to the formula, A2 is the first cell of your selected range, and A is the first letter you will highlight cells based on. Please change these two values to meet your needs.
3). Click the Format button. See screenshot:

A screenshot showing the New Formatting Rule dialog

4. Then it gets into the Format Cells dialog box, please specify your cell format and click the OK button.

5. Finally click the OK button when it returns to the New Formatting Rule dialog box.

All cell values beginning with the letter A now have the specified conditional formatting applied. See screenshot:

A screenshot showing cells formatted with conditional formatting when the first letter is A

Related articles:

Best Office Productivity Tools

šŸ¤– Kutools AI Aide: Revolutionize data analysis based on: Intelligent Execution   |  Generate Code  |  Create Custom Formulas  |  Analyze Data and Generate Charts  |  Invoke Kutools Functionsā€¦
Popular Features: Find, Highlight or Identify Duplicates   |  Delete Blank Rows   |  Combine Columns or Cells without Losing Data   |   Round without Formula ...
Super Lookup: Multiple Criteria VLookup  |   Multiple Value VLookup  |   VLookup Across Multiple Sheets   |   Fuzzy Lookup ....
Advanced Drop-down List: Quickly Create Drop Down List   |  Dependent Drop Down List   |  Multi-select Drop Down List ....
Column Manager: Add a Specific Number of Columns  |  Move Columns  |  Toggle Visibility Status of Hidden Columns  |  Compare Ranges & Columns ...
Featured Features: Grid Focus   |  Design View   |   Big Formula Bar   |  Workbook & Sheet Manager   |  Resource Library (Auto Text)   |  Date Picker   |  Combine Worksheets   |  Encrypt/Decrypt Cells   |  Send Emails by List   |  Super Filter   |   Special Filter (filter bold/italic/strikethrough...) ...
Top 15 Toolsets:  12 Text Tools (Add Text, Remove Characters, ...)   |   50+ Chart Types (Gantt Chart, ...)   |   40+ Practical Formulas (Calculate age based on birthday, ...)   |   19 Insertion Tools (Insert QR Code, Insert Picture from Path, ...)   |   12 Conversion Tools (Numbers to Words, Currency Conversion, ...)   |   7 Merge & Split Tools (Advanced Combine Rows, Split Cells, ...)   |   ... and more
Use Kutools in your preferred language ā€“ supports English, Spanish, German, French, Chinese, and 40+ others!

Supercharge Your Excel Skills with Kutools for Excel, and Experience Efficiency Like Never Before. Kutools for Excel Offers Over 300 Advanced Features to Boost Productivity and Save Time.  Click Here to Get The Feature You Need The Most...

Office Tab Brings Tabbed interface to Office, and Make Your Work Much Easier

  • Enable tabbed editing and reading in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Access, Visio and Project.
  • Open and create multiple documents in new tabs of the same window, rather than in new windows.
  • Increases your productivity by 50%, and reduces hundreds of mouse clicks for you every day!

All Kutools add-ins. One installer

Kutools for Office suite bundles add-ins for Excel, Word, Outlook & PowerPoint plus Office Tab Pro, which is ideal for teams working across Office apps.

Excel Word Outlook Tabs PowerPoint
  • All-in-one suite ā€” Excel, Word, Outlook & PowerPoint add-ins + Office Tab Pro
  • One installer, one license ā€” set up in minutes (MSI-ready)
  • Works better together ā€” streamlined productivity across Office apps
  • 30-day full-featured trial ā€” no registration, no credit card
  • Best value ā€” save vs buying individual add-in