Conditional Highlighting Limitation in Numbers (Horizontal Comparison)
Hello,
I am experiencing an issue with conditional highlighting in Apple Numbers on Mac that appears to be a limitation of the application.
I am trying to apply conditional formatting across rows (horizontal comparison) in a table of prices. Specifically, I need to automatically highlight the lowest value in each row (e.g., highlight the cheapest supplier per product in green), without using a fixed reference number.
However, I encountered the following limitations:
- Numbers does not allow the use of formulas (e.g., MIN across a row) directly within conditional highlighting rules.
- It is not possible to reliably reference another cell dynamically within the rule for row-based comparisons.
- As a result, there is no native way to create a dynamic horizontal comparison (e.g., highlight the minimum value in each row) without using workarounds such as helper columns and manual updates.
This functionality is standard in other spreadsheet applications (such as Excel and Google Sheets), where users can apply conditional formatting using formulas across rows.
This limitation significantly affects usability for comparative analysis, such as vendor price comparisons, where identifying the lowest value per row is essential.
I would like to request:
- The ability to use formulas directly in conditional highlighting rules
- Support for dynamic row-based comparisons (e.g., MIN, MAX across a row)
- Improved flexibility in referencing ranges within conditional formatting
Thank you for your time and support. Please let me know if you need additional details or a sample file.
Best regards,
Corralejos
