In this article we will show you how to color every other row in Google Sheets to help organize and manage your data in just a few simple steps.
Select the data range either by click-dragging through it or by identifying the top-leftmost cell and bottom-rightmost cell.
Format is located along the top row of Google Sheets controls.
The table becomes:
Screencap:
After selecting Alternating colors in the Format option of the main menu, a sidebar labeled Alternating colors will appear on the right side of Google Sheets. It contains options for changing the colors of every other row.
You can select one of the default styles by clicking on one of the options inside the highlighted section:
You can also set your own custom color styles by clicking on the pallet for each element of the style:
The table now looks as follows:
If you want to apply an alternate row color style to a dynamic data range that is constantly being updated, you can use conditional formatting. This means that blank rows don’t get alternate row colors, keeping the sheet neat. Here are the steps:
Select the data range either by click-dragging through it or by identifying the top-leftmost cell and bottom-rightmost cell.
For bigger ranges, you can just select the entire columns that contain the data.
If you have a header row and want to color it separately, do not include it in the range. For our example, we want to set a different color to the header.
Screencap:
Make sure the range is highlighted when you do this step.
Screencap:
The Conditional Formatting sidebar will appear. Select Custom formula is under Format rules:
On the textbox that will appear, add the following formula:
=AND(NOT(ISBLANK($A2)),ISODD(ROW()))
The $A2 marks the top-leftmost cell in the range. Change it depending on the actual range of your data.
Screencap:
Click Fill color icon under Formatting style label in the sidebar, then select the color from the palette.
Screencap:
If you include the header row in Step 1, you will get the following result:
If you did not include the header row, you will get the following:
To shade the header row, do the next step.
Select the header row, then click Fill color icon in the main toolbar, then select the color from the palette.
Screencap:
You can see how the conditional formatting changes when the number of rows with value changes.
If you enjoyed this article, you might also like our article on how to use Google Sheets custom formula conditional formatting or our article on how to use Google Sheets conditional formatting if another cell contains text.
If you want to learn how to use Google Sheets data validation email, we also suggest checking out our detailed guide.
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