Excel Shortcut & Tip-Automatically Alternate Row Color

If  you have sheet that has a lot of rows it can be difficult to “read”. For example, I do a monthly rent roll for a Lender that has 235 rows. Using Conditional Formatting to alternate the row color makes it much easier to read for everyone. Of course, because I use this every month and on several worksheets I have created I went a step further than what is outlined below by recording a Macro so I don’t have to memorize the steps below.

Excel’s Conditional Formatting feature makes this a simple task. (These instructions are for Excel 2003). They are slightly different for Excel 2007

1. Select the range that you want to format
2. Choose Format, Conditional Formatting
3. In the Conditional Formatting dialog box, select Formula Is from the drop-down list, and enter this formula:

   =MOD(ROW(),2)=0

4. Click the Format button, select the Patterns tab, and specify a color for the shaded rows.
5. Click OK twice to return to your worksheet.

The best part is that the row shading is dynamic. You’ll find that the row shading persists even if you insert or delete rows within the original range.