Cell Value Heatmap

The Cell Value Heatmap tool formats cell backgrounds as a heatmap based on their values, helping you visualize data patterns and identify trends at a glance.

How to Use Cell Value Heatmap

1. Select your range

Select the cells you want to visualize. This tool uses your current selection (explicit helper text is shown in the panel).

2. Open the tool

Open the add-on sidebar, expand Sheets Mega Tools, go to Cell Formatting, and click Cell Value Heatmap.

You can also use the Sheets Mega Tools menu shortcut to open the same sidebar section.

3. Choose color scheme

Click the caret button to expand the color scheme options:

• Stoplight - Red → Yellow → Green gradient
• Blue → White → Red - Blue to white to red gradient
• Custom - Enable min/max color pickers for custom gradients

4. Configure custom colors (if selected)

If you chose "Custom":

• Min color picker - Color for minimum values
• Max color picker - Color for maximum values
• Colors are interpolated between min and max

5. Apply heatmap

Click the "Apply" button to format cells with the heatmap colors. A status message appears in the panel confirming the operation.

How It Works

Numeric Cells

• Values are mapped across the gradient based on their position between min and max
• Minimum value gets the "min" color
• Maximum value gets the "max" color
• Values in between are interpolated

Text Cells (Planned Enhancement)

• Text cells will be sorted A→Z by first character (case-insensitive)
• Mapped across the gradient based on their alphabetical position
• Errors and empty cells remain unformatted

Current Behavior

• Currently ignores non-numeric cells
• Only numeric cells receive heatmap formatting
• Errors and empty cells stay unformatted

Color Schemes

Stoplight

• Red - Lowest values
• Yellow - Middle values
• Green - Highest values

Perfect for performance metrics, scores, or any data where you want to see "good" vs "bad" at a glance.

Blue → White → Red

• Blue - Lowest values
• White - Middle values
• Red - Highest values

Great for temperature data, deviations from average, or any data with a neutral midpoint.

Custom

• Choose your own min and max colors
• Colors are smoothly interpolated between your choices
• Perfect for brand colors or specific visual requirements

Use Cases

• Data analysis - Quickly identify high and low values in datasets
• Performance tracking - Visualize metrics across teams or time periods
• Financial analysis - Spot trends in revenue, expenses, or profits
• Quality control - Identify outliers in manufacturing or test data
• Sales data - See which products, regions, or periods perform best
• Survey results - Visualize response patterns and distributions

Example

If you have a range with values: 10, 25, 50, 75, 100

With a Stoplight scheme:

• 10 (min) → Red
• 25 → Red-Yellow blend
• 50 (middle) → Yellow
• 75 → Yellow-Green blend
• 100 (max) → Green