You do not tell us what is in columns O,P, and Q. If it is text (or empty)
this will work:

In L5 I have used this formula to find the minimum values in the row
=MIN(IF(M5:R5<0,M5:R5))
Note that this is an array formula so it must be entered using
Ctrl+Shift+Enter not just Enter.
This worked so I deleted the stuff in L and proceeded to conditional
formatting

I selected M5:R20 (you will need to select more) and entered this for the
conditional formatting rule
=M5=MIN(IF(M5:R5<0,M5:R5)) and gave the cells a green fill if this was true

NOTE: no need to use Ctrl+Shift+Enter as Excel treats all conditional
formatting rules as array formulas (isn't that neat!)

best wishes
--
Bernard Liengme
http://people.stfx.ca/bliengme
Microsoft Excel MVP

"Marsh" wrote in message
...
In Excel 2007, I have a worksheet with dollar amounts in columns M, N, and
R.
These values start in row 5 and go down to 12,456.
I need to pick out the lowest value in each row and give it a color (green
for example). Some of the cells in these ranges are blank, and those
cells
with a null value should not be considered the lowest amount.
I have been stumbling around attempting to use conditional formatting, to
no
avail.
Please help so I do not need to do this manually.

Many, many thanks
Marsh