You're right. It is to do with the $ signs.
If you've used A1 in the formatting for cell A1 (and copied down & across),
then each cell will be formatted according to its own contents.
If you use $A1, then the whole of each row will be formatted according to
the content of column A in that row.
If you use A$1, then the format of each column will be governed by the
content of row 1 in that column.
If you use $A$1, then the whole range (rows and columns) will be governed by
the content of cell A1.
--
David Biddulph

wrote in message
ups.com...
I found on one of the other posts how to do a row conditional format
using this formula in the "Formula is" option:

=(A1="variable1")+(A1="variable2")

Now the problem I'm having is when I want to copy them down for the
rest of my rows, they either get get scrambled with colors or just
follow colors of the very first row I copied. I'm guessing the obvious
reason has every bit to do with the $ sign in the conditional format.
So I tried to write it without it as well. But by doing that, the
whole row defaults to no color. What can I do to make it copy
correctly?