Here's how to create color scales conditional formatting for data visualization in Excel:

Steps:

1. Select your data range: Choose the cells containing the data points you want to visualize with a color scale.

2. Go to Conditional Formatting: Navigate to the "Home" tab on the Excel ribbon. In the "Styles" group, click the dropdown arrow next to "Conditional Formatting."

3. Choose Color Scales: From the dropdown menu, hover over "Color Scales" to see various pre-defined options. These include two-color scales (low to high values) and three-color scales (low, medium, high values).

4. Select a color scale format: Pick the color scale format that best suits your data and visualization needs.

5. (Optional) Customize colors: If you want to adjust the colors used in the scale, you can click "More Rules" at the bottom of the color scale options. This opens the "New Formatting Rule" window.

- In the "Format style" dropdown, choose "2-Color Scale" or "3-Color Scale" depending on your preference.
- Click on the color buttons next to "Minimum," "Midpoint" (for three-color scales), and "Maximum" to select the desired colors for each value range.
- Click "OK" to apply the custom color scheme.

6. (Optional) Format value thresholds: Within the "New Formatting Rule" window (accessed from "More Rules"), you can further customize the value thresholds for each color range.
- Beside "Minimum," "Midpoint," and "Maximum," you can choose between number formatting options, percentiles, or enter specific formulas to define the thresholds.

7. Click OK: Once you've chosen your color scale format and customized it if needed, click "OK" in the "New Formatting Rule" window (if used) and again in the Conditional Formatting menu to apply the formatting to your selected data range.

Result:

Your data cells will now be formatted with a color gradient based on the chosen color scale. Cells with lower values will have the color corresponding to the minimum value, and cells with higher values will have the color corresponding to the maximum value. In three-color scales, the middle color represents the midpoint value range.

This color coding allows you to easily visualize trends and patterns within your data set at a glance.