You could use conditional formatting with this formula

=NOT(OR(A1="",ISNUMBER(MATCH(A1,{"L01","L02","L03" ,"L04","L05","L06","L07","
L08"},0))))

--
HTH

Bob Phillips

(remove nothere from email address if mailing direct)

"Steve M" <Steve wrote in message
...
I have three columns where entires will either be text, text with letters
or
blank. If the entry is one of the following--L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06,
L07 or L08 I want the cell to be formatted with standard black text with a
white background. I also want this same formatting if the cell is blank.
If
the cell is not blank and contains anything other than the entries I
specified above, I want the background to be black and the font to be
white.
The problem I am having is getting the blanks to be formatted different
from
the "other" entries (in others words, entries not specified above).