Is it possible to set a cell color based on the value of the adjacent cell?

Question

I am not an active user of excel so I am not very certain if coloring the cell based on another cell's value is possible at all.

Suppose I have these cells:

I want the cell with Good string to be colored green the same way as YES cell is. Same goes to Bad string cell.

The final result should look like this:

Is it possible to do in MS Excel 2013 and how?

Solution

It is certainly possible with Excel 2010, which is one of your tags if not directly referenced in your question.

Create a conditional format for one of the cells on the left which references the cell to its immediate right. You should do this with the Use a formula to determine which cells to format option of the Rules Manager.

Create a rule for red/green on yes/no as you require.

The creation will automatically place $ symbols in the formula which, of course, restrict the formula to a cell.

Edit the formula in the Rules Manager to remove the $ from the column.

Save the formula

Use Format Painter to paste the formula down the whole left hand column.

You will end up with something like the following in the Rules Manager.

There are probably simpler ways to do it but this works for me.

Comments

[tasty]

two cells, first contains some string second contains YES/NO keyword. I want the first(left) cell to be filled with green if the second(right) is YES and red if it is NO

[CharlieRB]

How are the "Yes" and "No" cells being colored now? Are you using conditional formatting?

[tasty]

Yes, I use conditional formatting rules to color YES as green and NO as red. But I'd rather have the left-adjacent cells colored if the right cell is YES/NO