I'm not sure I followed everything you were talking about there, but you can set conditional rules to be ranges, not just cells. So if you apply a rule and set it to A1:A10, all 10 cells will evaluate that rule and apply it on a cell by cell basis. When doing this, you need to pay attention to the formula you are testing for relative or absolute references. Usually you want relative, but sometimes absolute ($B$1) or partially relative. ($B1:$B10) or (B$1:B$10)