Colour banding is a good way to make it easy for readers to scan through a long list. For example, perusing through the list of the recently released UNEB UCE results can be a daunting task if this kind of formatting wasn’t used. Sometimes you will read through a list and fail to see the school of your choice only to be told that it exists on a particular page.
In another example, after a rigorous selection exercise, universities display a list of successful students for a particular year’s intake. Going thru this list would be a nightmare for many if colour banding wasn’t employed.
But how can this done in Ms. Excel? In this article, I share the steps I use to fulfil the task in Ms. Excel 2016.
1. Select the area whose rows you wish to apply colour banding.
2. Go to Conditional Formatting and choose New Rule.
3. Choose Use a formula to determine which cells to format. In the empty area type the formula =MOD(ROW(),2)=0 and then click Format.
4. Select the Fill tab and choose a colour of your choice then OK and OK again. In my case, I prefer green. You end up with green alternating colour bands in your selection.
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Stephen Dumba
E-zone School of Computing
0772 111 223 / 0752 111 223