Deleting Conditional Formatting

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 4, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021

Conditional formats, to Excel, are just like any other format. That means that you can delete them by simply deleting all the formatting in a cell. Follow these steps:

  1. Select the cell or cells whose formatting you want to delete.
  2. Display the Home tab of the ribbon.
  3. In the Editing group, click Clear | Clear Formats.

That's it. All the formatting is removed from the cells, including any conditional formatting. If you don't want to delete any explicit formatting in the cell, but instead want to delete just the conditional formats, follow these steps:

  1. Select the cells from which you want to delete the conditional formatting.
  2. Display the Home tab of the ribbon.
  3. In the Styles section, click Conditional Formatting. Excel displays various options related to conditional formatting.
  4. Choose Clear Rules | Clear Rules from Selected Cells.

If you don't want to delete all the conditional formatting rules, then you need to follow these steps, instead:

  1. Select the cells from which you want to delete the conditional formatting.
  2. Display the Home tab of the ribbon.
  3. In the Styles section, click Conditional Formatting. Excel displays various options related to conditional formatting.
  4. Click Manage Rules. Excel displays the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager. (See Figure 1.)

    5. Figure 1. The Conditional Formatting Rules Manger.

  5. From the list of available rules, select the one you want to delete.
  6. Click Delete Rule.
  7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for any other rules you want to delete from the selected cells.
  8. Click OK to close the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager dialog box.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6815) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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