If none of those cells contain formulas that might return formula blanks
then use Peo's suggestion like this:

=COUNTA(B9,N9,Z9,AL9)

If those cells might contain formula blanks then use this:

=(LEN(B9)0)+(LEN(N9)0)+(LEN(Z9)0)+(LEN(AL9)0)

Biff

"John Elliott" <John wrote in message
...
Both your reply and Peo Sjoblom's both go some way toward solving this.
But
both require ALL 4 cells to be populated. I need a way for any ONE cell of
the four to be populated for the S4 cell to have its contents changed to
red.

Or, another way that might be even easier for me in the long ru, would be
this kind of formula:

IF any one of these 4 cells is not blank (B9 or N9 or Z9 or AL9), then
change the text in these four cells (B8, N8, Z8 and AL8) to red.

Thanks for all your help in this. I hope to have this solved soon.

--John


"Biff" wrote:

=COUNTA(B9,N9,Z9,AL9)=4

That will count formula blanks.

Maybe this:

=(LEN(B9)0)*(LEN(N9)0)*(LEN(Z9)0)*(LEN(AL9)0)

Biff

"Peo Sjoblom" wrote in message
...
look in help for conditional formatting
in the formula is box put

=COUNTA(B9,N9,Z9,AL9)=4

click the format button and select font colour and click OK twice

the above means that all 4 cells need to have data for this to happen

--

Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

Excel 95 - Excel 2007
Northwest Excel Solutions
www.nwexcelsolutions.com
"It is a good thing to follow the first law of holes;
if you are in one stop digging." Lord Healey


"John Elliott" <John wrote in
message
...
Is it possible to change the color of text using a formula, such as an
IF
statement? What I have in mind is something like this (stated simply):
If
cells B9 or N9 or Z9 or AL9 are blank, do nothing, else color text in
cell S4
red.