Tip 221 – Quickly Shade Alternate Rows in Excel

Using a handy conditional formatting technique you can shade alternate rows in Excel. Select all the cells in the range to apply the shading to and choose Conditional Formatting > New Rule on the Home tab of the ribbon. Choose Use a formula to determine which cells to format and type this into the box: =MOD(ROW(),2)
Click Format > Fill tab and choose a color for the fill. Click Ok twice. This format is live so it updates if rows are removed or added.