title: Assigning a background color to a cell, given a condition on another cell
body: <p>I am trying to create a formula in Microsoft Excel 2010 to accomplish the following algorithm:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>If A1=10, then A2 has a background color of red.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I have basic knowledge of if/then statements in Excel, so I have this so far:</p>
  
  <pre><code>=IF(A1=10, x)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>...where <code>x</code> would be the formula for changing the background color of the cell. However, after conducting some internet research on the subject, the consensus seems to be that I should instead use conditional formatting to accomplish this task. I have never used conditional formatting and am having trouble understanding how to utilize it so that a condition on one cell would affect another cell.</p>
  
  <p>This is the conditional formatting screen that I am faced with:</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/DcMwI.jpg" alt="Conditional box"></p>
  
  <p>So I guess I have two questions:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Is using conditional formatting the best way to accomplish this?</li>
  <li>If so, how can I utilize it to assign a background color to a cell, given the truth of a condition on a different cell?</li>
  </ol>