Excel's conditional formatting lets you formats cells based on the value of those cells or their formulas. Learn the basics of this amazing feature.

Manually combing through spreadsheets with large datasets can be a massive headache at times. Luckily, conditional formatting exists in Microsoft Excel specifically for this reason.

Open the Excel spreadsheet containing the columns you want to compare. Select the data in both columns, excluding the heading. In the Styles section in the Home tab, click on Conditional Formatting.

Whether you're comparing a single list or several, Excel's conditional formatting can get the job done.

A row-by-row formatting rule is as easy to apply as a column-by-column in Microsoft Excel, but you might not get the results you thought you would.