It sounds like these cells contain text? If so, you need to use the =FIND()
formula in the conditional formatting conditions, change it from "Cell Value
is" to "Formula is"
If you give examples of the data, we can be more specific...

"lightbulb" wrote:

I'm trying to conditionally format a cell so that if it contains what cell
$K$5 says, then it will be colored a certain color, if it contains what cell
$L$5 says, it will be colored another color...but to be colored it can
contain more than what is in K5 and L5, as long as K5 and L5 are in it
somewhere.

Make sense?

Help?

Thanks!