To replicate in Excel 2007:

A1: 2
A2: 1
A3: 3
Select cells A1:A3, with A1 being primary
Conditional Formatting
New Rule
Use a formula to determine which cells to format
=A1=MAX(A$1:A1)
Format, Bold, OK
OK
Cells A1 and A3 are bold, as they should be.
Select cell A2
Conditional Formatting
Manage Rules

See that the Rule formula is identical to what was typed in A1; it did not
adjust. The same is true with A3, even though they are all working correctly
as if they did, in fact, adjust. This is very disconcerting when checking
conditional formulae in a very large spreadsheet.
Am I doing this correctly? What is going on here?

Thank you,
JP