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Abstract 

In this video we show you how to delete a conditional formatting rule, and how to clear all rules at once.

Transcript 

You might want to temporarily add conditional formatting to better understand data in a worksheet, or you might want to clear all rules and start fresh. In this lesson, we'll look at how to clear or delete conditional formatting rules.

Let's take a look.

Before you clear conditional formats, you might want to verify where they are currently applied. Excel provides a convenient shortcut to select all cells with conditional formatting applied in the Find and Select menu, on the Home tab of the ribbon. Choose Find & Select, then Conditional Formatting. Excel will then select all cells that have conditional formatting applied in the current worksheet. You can then select Manage Rules from the Conditional Formatting menu and view the details of each rule.

To remove an individual rule, just select the rule and click the Delete Rule button. Repeat this process for each rule you'd like to remove. Now, if you select Conditional Formatting under Find & Select, Excel will report no cells found.

Let's undo our changes, and look at other ways to clear conditional formats. To remove conditional formatting from the table only, select the score values and choose "Clear Rules from Selected Cells" from the "Clear Rules" item in the Conditional Formatting menu. When we check Manage Rules, we see that all three rules are still intact, but now are applied to the key only.

Let's undo changes one more time. You can also clear all conditional formatting rules in a worksheet in one step. Just select "Clear Rules" then "Clear Rules from Entire Sheet" from the Conditional Formatting menu. Now if we check Manage Rules again, the list is empty. There is no longer any Conditional Formatting in the worksheet.

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AuthorMicrosoft Most Valuable Professional Award

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.