hi, may be different way to do this from what using, but:
(2nd way tried to use range AA:AC, did not seem to work either; last
resort would be to use item below that works, in 2 different cond. format
slots). thanks.

trying to test for same data, in same column, and in 2nd column portion (at
of document/sheet)

where I might have a new NAME entered at top without a suffix: .xx or .yy,
I am trying to compare it to same NAME at end that might have a suffix.

at end of document, in 2nd column (AC1150 in this case) using:

=IF(OR(RIGHT(AA1150,3)={".xx",".yy"}),LEFT(AA1150, LEN(AA1150)-3),"na")

Test is just for a conditional format, can test 1 column & following works:

=IF(ROW($A131)ROW($A$1100),"",OR(
INDEX(ROW($AC$1100:$AC$1160),MATCH(TRUE,$AC$1100:$ AC$1160=$AA131,0))ROW($A$1100)))

Where trying to OR() in the 2nd example does not work:

=IF(ROW($A131)ROW($A$1100),"",OR(
INDEX(ROW($AA$1100:$AA$1160),MATCH(TRUE,$AA$1100:$ AA$1160=$AA131,0))ROW($A$1100),
INDEX(ROW($AC$1100:$AC$1160),MATCH(TRUE,$AC$1100:$ AC$1160=$AA131,0))ROW($A$1100)))