Google Sheets: Highlighting Duplicates In A Single Column

Imagine what it’s like scrolling through a wide range of data in a spreadsheet to find yourself not being able to understand them that much. Quite an eyesore, isn’t it? But, with this little trick, you can customize your sheet in order to spot duplicates easier. Data in this format will then make more sense to you!

These steps will help you improve the formatting of your sheets. All you have to do is follow it, and you’ll soon get a hold of it. 

1. Open your web browser then go to Google sheets.

To begin, open your web browser and then navigate to Google Sheets. After that, choose a spreadsheet to edit; it can be an existing one, or you can create a new one.

2. Select a column from the entire sheet.

Select a column in the spreadsheet that you want to change. To select the entire column, click the letter of the column. In this case, I chose column A. The selected section will have a blue outline around it, indicating that it is the one you want to edit. 

3. Click “Format” from the menu bar then select the “Conditional Formatting” button.

After you’ve selected an entire column, select the “Format” button from the menu bar, and a drop-down menu will appear on your screen. Click the “Conditional Formatting” tab from the drop-down list, and a panel where you can edit and customize the column will appear on the right side of the page.

4. Edit the format rules depending on your preference.

You can specify which cells in the columns will be highlighted using the format rules on the right panel. You will be given several options for when a specific cell will be highlighted. It will depend on whether the cell is empty or not, whether it contains text, or based on dates, values, or other criteria.

5. Set a color for the highlighted cells in the “Formatting Style” section.

After you’ve changed the format rules, you can now change how the data will be displayed in the cells in the “Formatting Style” section. Text can be bolded, underlined, or italicized. You can also change the color of the text, and the most common feature used when highlighting duplicates in a column is changing the color of the cells. To do so, click the drop-down arrow next to the “Fill color” icon and select the desired color.

6. Click the “Done” button to save the changes.

If you are sure that the changes you made are complete and accurate, click the “Done” button to apply the changes to the specific column. Please take note that it will appear on your sheet right away.

I chose the color yellow to fill in the empty cells on my selected column in this example. This is how it turned out.

Manage Data With Google Sheets

In a nutshell, Google Sheets aims to provide convenience on a different level through the various functions it offers. That’s for sure! 

This is why spreadsheets are much easier to understand when applied with certain formatting styles such as highlights and the like. In this sense, once you present the data to other people, they will not have a hard time looking at it, too.