Make sure you haven't got spare spaces or other non-printing characters in
M2.
Does =LEN(M2) give you the answer 3?

Also double check that you've got "Formula Is" in your CF, not "Cell value
is".
--
David Biddulph

"bollard" wrote in message
...
Hi William

No, I've checked and there's just the one set of inverted commas. It isn't
working. I've tried formatting column M so that the Yes and No are treated
as
general, or as text etc and nothing seems to make any difference.

"William Horton" wrote:

Highlight cells A2 and B2. Follow the Excel menu path Format /
Conditional
Formatting. Change the first drop down field to "Formula Is." Then
enter
the formula =$M2="Yes" in the next field. Then click on the Format
button
and set the format to what you want the cell to be if the value is Yes.
Then
click on Okay until you are back to Excel. A2 and B2 should now be
whatever
format you set if the value in $M2 = Yes. Use the format painter to copy
this format to whatever other cells you want.

Hope that helps.

"bollard" wrote:

Hi Susan.

I don't understand what you mean.

Let me clarify what's whe

The applicant's name appears in A2 and B2. The Yes/No data is in column
M.

Surely I can use an IF condition, which includes $M$2="Yes" somewhere?

"Susan" wrote:

try this:

say you're in cell c2
somewhere in your spreadsheet, put the words "Yes" and "No" (without
quotes) & change them to white text OR hide the column. note the
location of these 2 words. in my sample i put them in T1 & T2.

select a2:b2
format, conditional formatting
choose "formula is" and enter
=$C2=$T$1
and choose the shading formatting
then click "add"
choose "formula is" again and enter
=$C2=$T$2
and choose "no fill" shading formatting
hit ok

try it out

if it works, highlight a2:b2 & drag down formatting as low as you
want. check one cell by opening conditional formatting again & make
sure the row # changed as you dragged it down.
:)
susan



On Apr 20, 7:40 am, bollard
wrote:
On a spreadsheet we have a column which simply has the answer Yes
or No.

In a row where the answer in that column is "Yes", I'd like the
first 2
columns to turn green.

Any ideas, please?

Thanks.