How do you highlight cells that are above average in Excel?

To highlight cells that are above average in Excel, the appropriate method is through Conditional Formatting. Specifically, selecting the Highlight Cells Rules and then choosing the Above Average option allows users to automatically format the cells based on their values compared to the average of the selected range. This feature enables visual differentiation of those above-average values easily, enhancing data analysis and presentation.

Conditional Formatting is a powerful tool for quickly identifying trends and outliers within your data, making it far simpler to interpret results at a glance. This choice directly addresses the requirement to highlight cells based on specific criteria, which, in this case, is their relation to the average value.

In contrast, utilizing the Format as Table option creates a structured format for the dataset but does not apply any specific rules for highlighting based on data values. Data Validation is primarily used for controlling what data can be entered into a cell, rather than adjusting how existing data is visually represented. Lastly, the Sort and Filter functionality can change the order of the data but does not provide any means to visually highlight cells, nor does it analyze the values in relation to the average.