How to apply conditional formatting to only visible cells in Excel?

Conditional formatting is widely used in the Excel working, but do you know how to apply conditional formatting only in the visible or filtered cells in Excel? Here, I will introduce how to shade alternated rows in visible cells only and how to highlight top n values in visible cells only.

Shade alternated rows in visible cells only

Highlight top n values in visible cells only

Shade alternated rows in visible cells only

Shade alternated rows in visible cells only by Conditional formatting function

1. Select the filtered range except the headers, click Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule. See screenshot:

2. In the New Formatting Rule dialog, click Use a Formula to determine which cells to format, and enter this formula =MOD(SUBTOTAL(3,$A$1:$A2),2) into the textbox, click Format to select a filled color for the cells. See screenshot:

3. Click OK > OK. Then when you filter the data, only the visible cells have been alternately shaded.

Shade alternated rows by Kutools for Excel

If you want to quickly shade rows alternately, you can apply Kutools for Excel’s Alternate Row/Column Shading.

1. Select the range you want to shade alternately, and click Kutools > Format > Alternate Row/Column Shading. See screenshot:

2. In the popped out dialog, check Rows in the Apply shading to section, and choose one option you need under Shading method section, and enter 1 into the Shade every textbox. See screenshot:

3. Click Ok, a dialog pops out to remind you that will remove the conditional formatting in the range, click Yes to continue. And then every other row has been shaded.

Highlight top n values in visible cells only

If you want to highlight top n values in visible cells only, for instance, highlight top 3 values in the visible cells of a list, you can do as these:

1. Before applying the filter, select a blank cell next to the data, C2 for instance, enter this formula =SUBTOTAL(9,B2), where B2 is the cell containing the value you want to include in the top 3 calculation. Then, drag the fill handle down to copy this formula to the other cells in the column. See screenshot:

2. Select another blank cell, E1, and enter the number of top values you want to find, for instance, enter 3 to find top 3 values from visible cells.

3. Select the data including formula cells, apply Filter function, see screenshot:

4. Select the filtered formula cells, C2:C12, and click Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule. And in the popping dialog, choose Use a formula to determine which cells to format, and enter this =COUNTIF($C$2:$C$12,">"&$C2)<$E$1 in the textbox, and then click Format to select one color under Fill tab to format the cells. See screenshot:

5. Click OK > OK. Now the top 3 values in the visible cells have been highlighted.