To achieve this in Google Sheets, you can use Conditional Formatting to automatically highlight duplicate values in red, no matter where you paste them in your sheet. Here’s a step-by-step guide to set this up:
Open Your Google Sheet: Start with the sheet where you want to apply this formatting.
Select the Range: Click the top-left corner of your sheet (where the row numbers and column letters meet) to select the entire sheet. If you want to apply it to a specific range or all the rows and columns you anticipate using, you can select that range instead.
Open Conditional Formatting:
Go to the menu and click on Format.
Choose Conditional formatting from the dropdown.
Set Up the Rule:
In the Conditional format rules panel that appears on the right, ensure that your range is specified under "Apply to range". If you selected the entire sheet earlier, it should display something like A1:Z1000 or a similar range.
Under Format cells if, choose Custom formula is from the dropdown.
Enter the Custom Formula:
In the input box for the custom formula, enter the following formula:
plaintext
Copy code
=COUNTIF($A$1:$Z$1000, A1) > 1
Adjust $A$1:$Z$1000 to match the range of cells you've selected if necessary. If you selected the whole sheet, you may use a larger range or the entire sheet’s reference.
Choose Formatting Style:
Click on the Formatting style color box and select a red color or your preferred highlight color.
Apply and Save:
Click Done to apply the formatting rule.
Now, any duplicate values within the selected range will be highlighted in red. This will work regardless of where you paste data in the sheet. If you have a large sheet and want to apply this to every cell dynamically, make sure your selected range covers the entire sheet or an adequate size of it.
This method ensures that as you add or paste new data, any duplicates will be automatically highlighted in red.
No comments: