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How to shade a blank cell until something is entered in Excel?

Author Siluvia Last modified

You may color a range of blank cells for some purpose, and now you want to remove the original background color after entering something into the blank cell. How to achieve it? This article can help you.

Shade a blank cell until something is entered with Conditional Formatting

Shade a blank cell until something is entered with Conditional Formatting

After setting a conditional formatting rule as follows, you can easily shade a blank cell until something is entered in Excel.

1. Select a range of blank cells you need to shade until something is entered, and then click Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule. See screenshot:

A screenshot of Conditional Formatting options in Excel with New Rule highlighted

2. In the New Formatting Rule dialog box, you need to:

2.1 Select the Use a formula to determine which cells to format option in the Select a Rule Type box.
2.2 Enter formula =ISBLANK(A1) (A1 is the first cell of the data range you use, you can change it to your need) into the Format values where this formula is true box.
2.3 Click the Format button. See screenshot:

A screenshot of the New Formatting Rule dialog with Use a formula to determine which cells to format selected

2.4 In the Format Cells dialog box, specify a background color under the Fill tab, and then click the OK button.

A screenshot of the Format Cells dialog with background color options under the Fill tab

2.5 When it returns to the New Formatting Rule dialog box, click the OK button.

Now all selected blank cells are filled with specified background color. When something is entered into the blank cell, the background color will be removed automatically. See screenshot:

A screenshot showing shaded cells in Excel that remove shading after data is entered

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