Yes, you can leverage wildcard characters (* and ?) in conditional formatting rules within Excel to achieve more granular control over how you format cells based on text patterns. Here's a breakdown of how they work and some practical examples:

* Asterisk (*): This symbol acts as a placeholder for any number of characters. For instance, a rule with "Text contains *" would format any cell containing any characters whatsoever. This could be useful for highlighting non-blank cells or cells that don't meet other specific criteria.

* Question Mark (?): This symbol represents a single unknown character. Let's say you have a column containing product codes that start with three letters followed by a variable number of digits. A rule with "Text contains ???*" would identify any cell with a three-letter code followed by any sequence of characters, effectively targeting all product codes in that format.

Here are some additional examples to showcase the versatility of wildcards in conditional formatting:

* Highlight cells containing specific phrases: You can use wildcards to identify variations of a phrase. For example, a rule with "Text contains pro*act*" would format cells containing "activate," "proactive," or any other word with "pro" in the beginning and "act" towards the end.

* Find cells with missing information: Create a rule with "Text contains ~*" (tilde before the asterisk) to format cells containing only wildcards. This would essentially identify cells with no text data entered but might still include hidden characters like spaces.

Remember: While wildcards offer power, it's crucial to use them strategically. An excessive number of wildcards can lead to unintended formatting and slow down your spreadsheet's performance. Strive to create specific criteria that target the exact cells you want to highlight or format.

For instance, instead of using "Text contains *" to find all non-blank cells, a simpler rule like "Cell is not empty" might be more efficient.