Icon Sets in Excel

Icon sets in Excel are part of conditional formatting graphics available for numerical data sets. By adding these icon graphics, we can design the numbers more beautifully.

There are four types of icon sets available under this category.

Type#1 - Directional

Type#2 - Shapes

Type#3 - Indicators

Type#4 - Ratings

We can use all four types of icon sets based on the data structure. We should choose based on the data we are showing to the user.

Example #1 - Directional Icon Set

This type of icon set is best suited to represent scores or ratings of employees and students. For example, look at the below data of employees' rating for the appraisal cycle, out of 10.

Let us apply some conditional formatting to these rating numbers. First, we will use the "directional" icon set.

Before we apply the "directional" icon set, we can see four different kinds of icon sets in this category.

Let us use the first two sets now. But, first, we need to define the limit of rating points.

For showing the "green" colored up arrow, the rating should be >=9.

For showing the horizontal "yellow" colored arrow, the rating should be >=5.

For showing the "red" colored down arrow, the rating should be <=4.

Example #2 - Shapes

The shape icon works the same as the previous one. But, we will see different data and use more than three types of shapes in this example.

Look at the below data for this example.

We will apply the four traffic lights for this data set. Below is the rule we use.

Green traffic light: If the number is >=50000.

Yellow traffic light: If the number is >=40000.

Red traffic light: If the number is >=30000.

Black traffic light: If the number is <30000.

Select the data, apply the traffic light first, and then edit the rule, as shown below.

We will have a traffic light like the below image for our data.

We can easily identify the good revenue-generated locations for respective products by looking at green-colored areas.

In the edit rule, we can play around with other icon sets as well. We can choose any different icon set from the drop-down list and change the rule.

We have changed from shapes to the "5 Rating" icon set and changed the rule accordingly. Click on "OK" to see the new icon set for the same data.

Now, we will change the icon set to "Henry Balls."

Now, the data looks like this.

Like this, by defining rules, we can insert any icon sets.

• In more than three rules, we must use five icons set category.
• Generally, "Henry balls" are used to represent percentage data.
• The traffic lights are eye-catching icon sets.
• The directional icon sets show growth or decline between two periods.

This article has been a guide to Icon Sets in Excel. We learned using Excel icon sets, conditional formatting, examples, and a downloadable Excel template. You may learn more about Excel from the following articles: -

• New Line in Excel Cell
• Conditional Formatting with Formulas Examples
• KPI Dashboard in Excel
• Conditional Formatting for Blank Cells in Excel
• Calculate IRR in Excel