Temporarily Hide Excel Conditional Formatting

To highlight specific cells on an Excel worksheet, you can use conditional formatting.

In the example shown below, orders with a quantity greater than 50 are highlighted with green fill colour.

Conditional Formatting Rule

This was the result of simple conditional formatting, based on the cell value.

Sometimes though, the conditional formatting can be distracting, and there’s no built in way to temporarily remove it.

Create an On/Off Switch

Instead of removing the conditional formatting, you could add an On/Off switch to your worksheet. Then, adjust the rules, so you only show the conditional formatting when the switch is on.

In the screenshot below, there’s a cell named CondF_Show, and it has a data validation drop down for Yes and No.

Change Conditional Formatting Rule

I changed the conditional formatting to a formula that checks both the Quantity cell value, and the value in the CondF_Show cell.

On/Off Switch Set to No

After you revise the rule, when the CondF_Show cell is changed to No, the conditional formatting is temporarily hidden.

More Conditional Formatting Info

For more Conditional Formatting rules and advanced examples that use a formula, go to the Conditional Formatting Examples page on my Contextures site.

And here are a few more pages on my site, where you can learn more about Excel Conditional Formatting:

Fix Conditional Formatting Extra Rules

Conditional Formatting – Currency

Conditional Formatting – Documentation

Conditional Formatting – Data Bars

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