"mama no teeth" wrote in message
...
Try this
Assuming your data from A1:B100 Hightlight your data, Conditional
Formatting
enter formula then select grey shading

=MOD(--RIGHT($A1,1),2)=1



how will that work when the right hand character of my categories will be
variable, and generally not a number?



"Lee Harris" wrote:

I know how to use e.g. MOD functions to conditionally format alternate
rows
with shading, but what is the best way to do this if your data is in
groups
so that you rather than have alternate rows of grey and white shading,
you
might have 5 items in one group that you want grey, then 3 in white, then
7
of grey etc, based on the value in a cell

eg

Column 1, Column 2

[GREY SHADING]category 1, blah...
[GREY SHADING]category 1, blah...
[GREY SHADING]category 1, blah...
[GREY SHADING]category 1, blah...
[WHITE SHADING]category 2, blah...
[WHITE SHADING]category 2, blah...
[GREY SHADING]category 3, blah...
[GREY SHADING]category 3, blah...
[GREY SHADING]category 3, blah...
[GREY SHADING]category 3, blah...
[GREY SHADING]category 3, blah...

so the shading reflects alternation between different categories for ease
of
viewing/picking out visually...


I want category 1 rows in light grey, category 2 rows in white, category
3
rows in grey again etc..

the categories will be text, I won't always know what it is either, so I
can't pick out a number from it.


tks in advance for any assistance.