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Highlight blank cells

To highlight blank cells (i.e. empty cells) with conditional formatting, you can use a simple formula based on the ISBLANK function. In the example shown, the formula used to highlight blank cells is: =ISBLANK(C5) When this formula returns TRUE, it triggers a Conditional Formatting rule that applies a bright fill color to empty cells in the range C5:J16. This makes it easy to see at a glance which students are missing quiz scores. The formatting is dynamic — if the data changes, the highlighting will automatically update.

April 14, 2025 · 1 min · 73 words · Jacob Espinoza

Table of Contents

This is a quick and easy way to locate missing values in a data set.

The TRUE or FALSE result for each cell is what triggers the rule.

Empty vs. blank

The ISBLANK function only returns TRUE if a cell contains no value.

A conditional formatting rule to highlight blank cells

As a result, the cell won’t be highlighted.

For example, if A1 contains “apple”, ISBLANK(A1) returns FALSE.

LEN will also count characters in numbers, but number formatting is not included.

A conditional formatting rule to highlight blank cells

Excel ISBLANK function

Excel LEN function

Empty vs. blank#

Empty vs. blank