Try using the Formula Is option and use this formula:

=SEARCH("listen",cell_ref)

If you want to highlight the entire row make the cell_ref absolute:

=SEARCH("listen",$A1)

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"Maureen" wrote in message
...
Is it possible to do a partial word match for conditional formatting.
I want to search for any cell that contains the word 'listen' in either
upper or lower case and the cell may contain other characters. I tried =
*listen* but it didn't work.

If possible, I'd also like to change the color of the whole row not just
the
matching cell in the row.