Excel – How to make a cell’s font transparent

Here's a macro that creates a conditional format for each row in your selection. It does this by copying the format of the first row to EACH row in the selection (one by one, not altogether). Replace B1:P1 with the reference to the first row in your data table.

Sub NewCF()
    Range("B1:P1").Copy
    For Each r In Selection.Rows
        r.PasteSpecial (xlPasteFormats)
    Next r
    Application.CutCopyMode = False
End Sub

To use, highlight the un-formatted rows in your dataset (in my case, B2:P300) and then run the macro. In the example below, note that the max numbers in the first two rows are 5 and 15, respectively; both cells are dark red.

I'm sure there's a faster solution than this, though.

All right, I got kind of sick of this question sticking out there. I wrote this macro, it sorts ascending, divides the non-blank range in half (rounded up) and applies two color scales. Modify as you wish.

Sub TestColorScale()

Application.ScreenUpdating = False

'sort ascending
    With ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1").Sort
        .SetRange Range("A:A")
        .Header = xlNo
        .MatchCase = False
        .Orientation = xlTopToBottom
        .SortMethod = xlPinYin
        .Apply
    End With

'count cells
Dim intcount As Integer
Dim rngcount As Range
Set rngcount = Range("A:A")
intcount = Application.WorksheetFunction.CountA(rngcount)
rngcount.FormatConditions.Delete


'Get half
Dim inthalf As Integer
inthalf = intcount / 2
inthalf = Application.WorksheetFunction.RoundUp(inthalf, 0)


'Do first half
    Dim rng1 As Range
    Set rng1 = Range(Cells(1, 1), Cells(inthalf, 1))

   ' Add a 2-color scale.
    Dim cs1 As ColorScale
    Set cs1 = rng1.FormatConditions.AddColorScale(ColorScaleType:=2)

    ' Format the first color
    With cs1.ColorScaleCriteria(1)
        .Type = xlConditionValueLowestValue
        With .FormatColor
            .Color = vbGreen
            .TintAndShade = -0.25
        End With
    End With

    ' Format the second color
    With cs1.ColorScaleCriteria(2)
        .Type = xlConditionValueHighestValue
        With .FormatColor
            .Color = vbBlue
            .TintAndShade = 0
        End With
    End With

'Do second half
    Dim rng2 As Range
    Set rng2 = Range(Cells(inthalf + 1, 1), Cells(intcount, 1))
   ' Add a 2-color scale.
    Dim cs2 As ColorScale
    Set cs2 = rng2.FormatConditions.AddColorScale(ColorScaleType:=2)

    ' Format the third color
    With cs2.ColorScaleCriteria(1)
        .Type = xlConditionValueLowestValue
        With .FormatColor
            .Color = vbRed
            .TintAndShade = -0.25
        End With
    End With

    ' Format the fourth color
    With cs2.ColorScaleCriteria(2)
        .Type = xlConditionValueHighestValue
        With .FormatColor
            .Color = vbYellow
            .TintAndShade = 0
        End With
    End With

Application.ScreenUpdating = True

End Sub