I know this is do-able, as I've seen it before. I just don't know how to do
it. What I'm trying to do is create an excel spreadsheet for vacations here
at work, where the cells will automatically fill in with a pre-determined
fill/background color when the text letter "V" (for vacation day) is entered
in the cell. It would also be neat to know if another letter, say "S" (for
planned sick/doctors appointment) would work the same way and the cell change
a different color when an employee entered "S".

All I'm trying to do is to highlight the background fill color of cells
automatically when a specific letter is typed into a cell. Thanks very much
in advance for any help you can give here.

Yes, you can definitely achieve this in Excel using Conditional Formatting. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Select the range of cells where you want to apply the formatting.
2. Go to the Home tab on the ribbon and click on Conditional Formatting.
3. From the drop-down menu, select "New Rule".
4. In the "New Formatting Rule" dialog box, select "Use a formula to determine which cells to format".
5. In the formula bar, enter the formula =A1="V" (assuming A1 is the first cell in the selected range). This formula checks if the cell contains the letter "V".
6. Click on the "Format" button and choose the fill color you want to apply to the cell when the condition is met (i.e. when the cell contains "V").
7. Click "OK" to close the "Format Cells" dialog box.
8. Click "OK" again to close the "New Formatting Rule" dialog box.

Now, whenever you type the letter "V" in any cell within the selected range, the cell will automatically be filled with the color you chose in step 6.

To add another rule for the letter "S", simply repeat the above steps but use the formula =A1="S" instead. You can choose a different fill color for this rule.

That's it! Now you can easily track vacation and sick days in your Excel spreadsheet.

Look up "conditional formatting" in Excel help.
--
David Biddulph

"Myke" wrote in message
...
I know this is do-able, as I've seen it before. I just don't know how to do
it. What I'm trying to do is create an excel spreadsheet for vacations
here
at work, where the cells will automatically fill in with a pre-determined
fill/background color when the text letter "V" (for vacation day) is
entered
in the cell. It would also be neat to know if another letter, say "S" (for
planned sick/doctors appointment) would work the same way and the cell
change
a different color when an employee entered "S".

All I'm trying to do is to highlight the background fill color of cells
automatically when a specific letter is typed into a cell. Thanks very
much
in advance for any help you can give here.

Hi Myke
Go to FormatConditional FormattingCondition 1 Cell Value is Open
second window and select " equal to " third window type in ="v" then press
Format and Tab Patern and select colour .

Press button Add a second Condition will appear, do the same but in the
third window type ="s" and Format with a different colour.
Regards
Cimjet
"Myke" wrote in message
...
I know this is do-able, as I've seen it before. I just don't know how to do
it. What I'm trying to do is create an excel spreadsheet for vacations
here
at work, where the cells will automatically fill in with a pre-determined
fill/background color when the text letter "V" (for vacation day) is
entered
in the cell. It would also be neat to know if another letter, say "S" (for
planned sick/doctors appointment) would work the same way and the cell
change
a different color when an employee entered "S".

All I'm trying to do is to highlight the background fill color of cells
automatically when a specific letter is typed into a cell. Thanks very
much
in advance for any help you can give here.

PERFECT! Thank you very much. Hope I can return the favor to someone here on
something....works great!

"David Biddulph" wrote:

Look up "conditional formatting" in Excel help.
--
David Biddulph

"Myke" wrote in message
...
I know this is do-able, as I've seen it before. I just don't know how to do
it. What I'm trying to do is create an excel spreadsheet for vacations
here
at work, where the cells will automatically fill in with a pre-determined
fill/background color when the text letter "V" (for vacation day) is
entered
in the cell. It would also be neat to know if another letter, say "S" (for
planned sick/doctors appointment) would work the same way and the cell
change
a different color when an employee entered "S".

All I'm trying to do is to highlight the background fill color of cells
automatically when a specific letter is typed into a cell. Thanks very
much
in advance for any help you can give here.

Depends upon how many letters you are speaking about.

3 or less would allow you to use Conditional Formatting.

More would require VBA or Excel 2007


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 09:26:01 -0700, Myke wrote:

I know this is do-able, as I've seen it before. I just don't know how to do
it. What I'm trying to do is create an excel spreadsheet for vacations here
at work, where the cells will automatically fill in with a pre-determined
fill/background color when the text letter "V" (for vacation day) is entered
in the cell. It would also be neat to know if another letter, say "S" (for
planned sick/doctors appointment) would work the same way and the cell change
a different color when an employee entered "S".

All I'm trying to do is to highlight the background fill color of cells
automatically when a specific letter is typed into a cell. Thanks very much
in advance for any help you can give here.