Conditionally Format a Pivot Table With Data Bars

Data Bars are a cool Conditional Formatting feature in Excel and they add a colored bar to your values.

The length of the data bar represents the value in the cell.  A longer bar represents a higher value.

You have a Gradient Fill or a Solid Fill to choose from as well as different pre-determined colors.

If you select the More Rules option then you can select more colors as well as many different values types to format.

Download workbookData-Bars.xlsx

STEP 1: Select any value inside the Pivot Table. Go to Home > Conditional Formatting > Data Bars > Any Gradient Fill

STEP 2: Go to Formatting Options Icon and select the second option to apply the data bar formatting to the entire table.

Now you have data bars showing up for the entire pivot table.

STEP 3: Go to Formatting Options Icon and select the third option to apply the data bar formatting to the entire table while excluding the total column and row.

You get a better visual representation as the totals do not affect the data bars!

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John Michaloudis is a former accountant and finance analyst at General Electric, a Microsoft MVP since 2020, an Amazon #1 bestselling author of 4 Microsoft Excel books and teacher of Microsoft Excel & Office over at his flagship Academy Online Course.