hi bob, chip's formula works with formulas as i was using it before i
switched to CFcolorcount. the only problem was that each variable in formula
had to be fixed variable making it impossible to copy the format to other
cells.

i still have this problem though: i have seven sheets and each has a bottom
row, with your formula across it, previously it was chip's formula, which
counts how many format changes occurred in the column above. the only way i
get good numbers is to select/activate each individual sheet, and then
"calculate" the activated/selected sheet. otherwise the values are incorrect.

additionally, when i move to another sheet and calculate, that bottom row on
previous sheets i've run "calculate" on has changed and reflects incorrect
values. go figure . .