How to Make Positive Numbers Show Up in Green in Excel

What is the easiest way to analyze information? Yes, it is visual but how can you make numeric or textual data visual? Right again, you color-code it! So, our best bet for making positive numbers stand out from negative ones is to color-code them. And the immediate color code for +ive and -ive we comprehend is green and red.

This tutorial is about making positive numbers green without having to handpick them. Learn the A to Z of formatting positive numbers as green using Conditional Formatting, Custom Number Formats, and VBA.

Let's stay positive and go green!

Table of Contents

Method #1 – Using Conditional Formatting

Use Conditional Formatting in Excel to make positive numbers green. This Excel feature formats cells fulfilling defined criteria. We can use the Conditional Formatting rules to highlight the numbers that are greater than 0 and therefore positive. The steps below will demonstrate how to use Conditional Formatting to change the color of positive numbers to green in Excel:

Select the range with the numbers that you want to change the color of.
In our example case, we are selecting the range D4 to D14.
To apply the Conditional Formatting rule, go to the Home tab and click on the Conditional Formatting button in the Styles In the menu, point to Highlight Cells Rules and select the Greater Than rule in the submenu.
A small dialog box will open titled Greater Than.
In the dialog box, enter the number 0 in the textbox. From the scrollbar menu on the side, select Green Fill with Dark Green Text.
You can apply the format of your choice, choosing to change just the font color without the cell's color fill by heading to the Custom Format option instead.
Use the OK button in the dialog box to confirm the rule.

The dialog box will close and the Greater Than Conditional Formatting rule will be applied changing the positive numbers in the selected cells to green:

Method #1 – Using Conditional Formatting

Similarly, you can change the negative numbers in the same range to red by applying the Less Than Conditional Formatting rule. For the complete details and method, check out this article.

Method #2 – Using Custom Number Formats

Make positive numbers show up in green with Custom Number Formats in Excel. Number Formats are used to change the appearance of numbers without affecting their value and in this case, without even actually changing the font color. Number Formats are part of the Format Cells settings. To use Custom Number Formats in Excel to show positive numbers in green, follow these steps:

Select the cells containing the target numbers.
Using our case example, we have selected column D as it contains all our target numbers. Also, the custom format that we are going to apply will only focus on the numbers while other values (such as the header in D2) will be ignored.
As highlighted above, click on the dialog launcher arrow of the Number group in the Home tab to open the Format Cells dialog box. Alternatively, use the Ctrl + 1 keys and then select the Number tab in the dialog box.
In the Category section left of the dialog box, select the Custom
In the Type field, copy-paste this code:
[Color10]0.00;-0.00 //Dark Greenor[Green]0.00;-0.00 //Light Green
The code is set to make the font color of positive numbers appear green while negative numbers will be displayed as they are, along with the minus sign. If you are dealing with integers instead of decimals, change "0.00" in the code to '0″.
Hit the OK button to apply this setting and close the dialog box.
The positive numbers in the selected cells will be formatted as green:
Tweak the code a little to also format the negative numbers in red. The code will become:

[Color10]0.00;[Red]-0.00
or
[Green]0.00;[Red]-0.00

All that has been changed in the code is the addition of the color for the negative numbers. "[Red]" has been placed before -0.00 as the color for the negative numbers, keeping green as the color for the positive numbers.

The turnout of this code is shown below where positive numbers are configured as green and negative numbers as red:

Method #3 – Using VBA

Our final method will show you how to use VBA in Excel to set positive numbers in a green font. User-defined codes are channeled with VBA to automate processes in Excel.

We will define the task for VBA as changing the font color of the positive numbers to green based on our range selection on the worksheet. Change the font color for positive numbers in Excel with VBA following the ahead mentioned steps:

Select the cells containing the numbers.
Since this method targets numbers while ignoring text, we have selected column D in our case example.
Open the Developer tab and click on the Visual Basic button in the Code group to access the Visual Basic Without enabling the Developer tab, you can still launch the editor by using the Alt + F11 shortcut keys.
In the editor, go to the Insert tab and select the Module
Copy-paste the code from below in the Module window:
```
Sub Mark_Positive_Numbers_Green()
Dim c As Range
For Each c In Selection
 If IsNumeric(c.Value) And c.Value > 0 Then c.Font.ColorIndex = 10
Next c
End Sub
```
The code works on the cells selected on the worksheet and checks those cells for numeric values. Upon finding a numeric value, it checks if it is greater than 0. If so, it's clear that the number is positive. Then the code changes the font color of the positive values into color number 4 in the Color Index which is green.
Select the Run button in the toolbar in the editor or press the F5 key to run the code.
All the positive values in the selected range will have their font colors changed to green:

Add another criterion in the code to simultaneously highlight negative numbers in red:

Sub Mark_Positive_Negative_Numbers()
Dim c As Range
For Each c In Selection
 If IsNumeric(c.Value) And c.Value > 0 Then c.Font.ColorIndex = 10
 If IsNumeric(c.Value) And c.Value < 0 Then c.Font.ColorIndex = 3
Next c
End Sub

The second criterion colors the font of numbers less than 0 in red, as represented by 3 on the Color Index.

Positive that you can handle numbers above 0 all by yourself now? We are confident that you can! Now you know how to easily format positive numbers to show in green and as a by-product you learned how to make negative numbers red. It's the little tips and tricks that make the Excel ride smooth. Stay tuned for all the itty bitty, nitty gritty, and super greaty Excel tricks. Ready? Tricky? Go!