I am having trouble reading you message - the I and 1 seem confused
So I will use column D and E for clarity

D is a number always positive (like you I column) , E a number than can be
positive or negative (like your J)
Since only J can have either sign, it makes sense to take the abs of this
only

Select all the data; open Conditional Formatting dialog
Formula IS =ABS($E1)=$D1
Set the format required

If you want to avoid this applying the rows with no values in the two
columns
=AND(COUNT($D1:$E1)=2,ABS($E1)=$D1)

Note that I am assuming your selection started in row 1. If it starts in say
row 5, then use
=AND(COUNT($D5:$E5)=2,ABS($E5)=$D5)

best wishes
--
Bernard V Liengme
Microsoft Excel MVP
http://people.stfx.ca/bliengme
remove caps from email


"medic" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I am evaluating financial data based on payments received for services or
written off. The values in column I is the charged amount the values in
j-l
are either payments or write off amounts. The values in I are positive
the
values in j-l are either 0 or negative.
I am trying to cause a row to change color if the "absolute" values in i2
and l2 are the same (in other words we wrote off the full amount) and then
apply it to the rest of the sheet.

I have selected the whole sheet and done a CF using the formula =ABS(i=l)
with no luck I have also tried =if(i=l) with no luck and various
variations

thanks