Forum Discussion
Excel for Mac - Conditional formatting if same cells in 2 different sheets have different values
I am trying to set up a simple way to scan a complex spreadsheet that is updated periodically by another person so I can quickly see the changes they have made. My thought was to apply conditional formatting to all cells in the new version, and use conditional formatting to highlight any cells whose content has changed compared to the old version. For some reason, when I try to create a formula based rule for this, it doesn't work. So I tried copying the old worksheet into the new file, and then again trying to set up formula based conditional formatting, again with no luck.
I end up with a formula rule that looks like this:
='8-18-23 Compare'!$B$4≠'3-12-23'!$B$4
And I immediately get an error message: "There's a problem with this formula." I can't find any guidance online as to what is amiss with this formula.
Will appreciate input from those with more Excel knowledge than I have!
Neil
2 Replies
≠ is not valid in Excel. To specify 'not equal to', you have to use <>
='8-18-23 Compare'!$B$4<>'3-12-23'!$B$4
Please note that this will only look at cell B4. If you want to compare more cells, select the entire range, and use
='8-18-23 Compare'!B4<>'3-12-23'!B4
where B4 is the top left cell in the selection.
- Thank you Hans. I'm used to constructing formulas in FileMaker Pro, which does accept ≠.
Neil
