I don't think I understand this completely. I've used conditional
formatting, so I understand why needing to go beyond three conditions is a
problem; that's why you want to do it in VBA instead, I expect. But I'm not
sure what you mean when you want to do it "via a list", and that you want to
use "the list function". Maybe you're saying you want your program to go
down a list of cells and for each one a) validate the value (ie it must be
one of five values) and b) set the cell's text and background colors; sure, I
get that. Is that all you mean, or is there more to it?

--- "Anders" wrote:
I'm using xl2003 and have 5 source values for a data validation list. Each
source data cell has text, a different fill color (red, yellow, green etc)
and some change between black and white text. I use the list like any other,
in hundreds of other cells. I need the conditional formatting to expand past
3 conditions. I've seen some posts on here for doing this, just not in via a
list. My values are alphabetical for this part and to maintain consistency
with how the other users who populate the sheet with data enter it, I want to
use the list function.