Format Cell in a column based on previous cell in column - Excel 2019

Question

I know there are other answered questions like this but they are either outdated or dont explain how to get to the menu to enter things in. I am a novice Excel user and need a little help in getting cells in a column to be formatted based on the value of the cell above, in the same column. For example:

B3 - 10
B4 - 11 (Higher value than B3 so should turn green)
B5 - 9 (Lower value than B4 so should turn red)
B6 - 10 (Higher value than B5 so should turn green
...and so on.

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Here is an example. I want to monitor that the amount of apples I buy keeps going up(turn green) but if I get less then than I previously had it should format the cell red.

Any assistance is highly appreciated.

Answer 1

Formulas:

=F2<F1 - Red

=F2>F1 - Green

=F2=F1 - Yellow

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Start with your list:

Select Cell F2 and go to conditional formatting. Select "New Rule" and write the formula =F2<F1. Select "Format..." to decide background color.

Now we do it for the other condition, =F2>F1:

Now we do it for the other condition, =F2=F1:

Then you choose "Format Painter" and mark all cells down (incl. F2). So in example I select F2 to F14:

Result should be like this:

and your conditional formatting rules manager will look like this:

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Trick:

If you want to ignore the first data row (i.e. row 2) you can change in the conditional formatting manager to apply for range F3 in and downward

and result will be: