Format-Conditional Formatting. Change first dropdown to "formula is". Input:

=AND(OR(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("y",A2)),ISNUMBER(SEARCH(" x",A2))),ISERROR(SEARCH("(",A2)),ISERROR(SEARCH(") ",A2)))

Click Format, Pattern, select red. Hit "ok", then "ok" again.
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Best Regards,

Luke M
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"lightbulb" wrote:

I'm trying to set the conditional formatting so that if a cell contains X or
Y but does not have a begining and end parenthesis, it will turn red. How do
I do this?