Rather than "the $ sign either side of the cell reference letter", think of
the first $ sign as before the column letter and the second one as before
the row number. The first one makes the column absolute, whilst the second
makes the row absolute. Hence there are four variants:
A1 (both column and row relative)
$A1 (column absolute, row relative)
A$1 (column relative, row absolute)
$A$1 (both column and row absolute)

"SiH23" wrote in message
...
Many thanks this is greatly appreciated. Just one more thing... what
effect
do the $ signs have in this formula? I am aware of absolute cell
referencing
which uses the $ sign either side of the cell reference letter, but not
where
a single one is used.

Many thanks,

Simon.

"Gord Dibben" wrote:

Select column G and Data ValidationAllowCustom

=$G1=$B1


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

On Mon, 22 Oct 2007 09:56:02 -0700, SiH23

wrote:

Hi,

The columns B and G in a spreadsheet are formatted to except date values
in
the form: dd/mm/yyyy.

I need to set validation on Column G to only except a date that is
either
equal to or greater than the date in Column B.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Simon.