I'm guessing by the snapshots you've posted that you're using something later than Excel 2003, so why not use the Table option in the Insert menu to take care of the alternating blue and white lines rather than using conditional formatting?

Hi, i'm just not that creazy about the way it screws up the table i already made.

Then I would suggest you go with Claus' CF formula ( =AND(ISNUMBER(N4),N40) ) in combination with the alternating rows one you already have.

OK i found a solution with the with using the formula "N4 is between 1 and 1000"

however, i was woundering regarding pasting the formule in alternate rows. is there a way to paste it in all the alternate rows automatically not manually?

If you write the formula in the first row then highlight that cell and the one below, you can just drag the two down to copy. That will put the formula in all the even numbers (for example) and leave the odd ones blank.

It will also work if you have two formulas that you want to alternate all the way down. Put formula one in the first row and formula two in the second, highlight the two cells and drag down as necessary.

Hope that helps.

thanks. that would do it