You might want to exclude empty cells (if there are any):

Assume the range in question is A1:A5
Select the range A1:A5
Formula Is: =AND(A1<"",LEN(A1)<5)

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"doyree" wrote in message
...
hello,

i have a question with conditional formating. please help.

a
00607
01505
132
12345

i wanted that if cell box contained less than 5 characters, it is fill
with
red.
above is all digits stores in text. i made it text since some values have
0
in front.

i went to conditional formating and did
cell value is, not equal to, ="LEN(5)"
then fill box with red
i also tried ="LENB(10)" but that didn't work.

could you please help?

thank you