Where A1 represents the active cell in the selection when the rule was defined. The CELL function returns either 1 or zero to indicate “on” or “off”. In this case we are comparing the result to zero, so when CELL returns 0, the expression returns TRUE and the conditional formatting is triggered. When CELL returns 1, the expression returns FALSE and no conditional formatting is applied.

Dave Bruns

Hi - I’m Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.