I'm not sure of the best way to go about this. First let me say that I
am a basic though long time Excel user. I can use basic Excel
functionality but I wouldn't even know where (much less how) to begin
to write VB code without very detailed instructions.

I am trying to create conditional formatting based on a gantt type
chart. This chart may not line up correctly using variable width fonts
but consider the following;

ABCDEF
1 GORO
2 BBB
3 BBB
4 BB

There are no cell values, just cell formatting. The cell values in the
above example represent color filled cells. (B=BLACK, W=WHITE, G=GREEN,
O=ORANGE, R=RED)

In row #1 I want to color each cell based on the number of color filled
cells found in the column below it. So A1 would be white because there
are no colored cells in column A. B1 would be green because there is 1
black cell in the column. C1 would be orange because there are 2 black
filled cells under it and D1 would be red because there are 3 colored
cells under it.

I want to be able to highlight cells in a given row and select a black
color fill and have row #1 automatically update itself based on the new
total number of colored cells below it.

I am very comfortable following very detailed instructions but sparse
references will quickly get me lost.

Thank you in advance!
Roger Westbrook