Highlighting duplicate cells adjacent to one another across multiple rows

[Shippady]

Hi Folks,

I’m trying to highlight cells that share the same value and that are adjacent to one another, but copy this formula down to over 900 rows.

I have tried selecting all the cells and then clicking Conditional Formatting, New Rule, Use a formula to determine which cells to format.

Then in the ‘Edit the Rule Description:’ I have tried =$A$1=$B$1 and then have selected it to format the cell by highlighting an adjacent match.

However this only completes the formula for the first 2 cells (Row 1) in this case.

For example as a result, I would like cells A1 and B2 to be highlighted, and cells A5:A10 and B5:B10 also, and then the cells in between to be left blank so I know what cells are not sharing the same value as their adjacent neighbour cell.

I’m using a PC and Windows 10, with Office 365. Microsoft Home and Business 2016.

I’ve got over 900 lines to do on 4 spreadsheets and haven’t got the patience to go through each set of results manually.

Please help! Thanks in advance!

[#2]

@Shippady Use =$A1=$B1 in stead. Then it shall work as desired. Note that empty cells are equal to zero. So A11: B12 will also be marked. If you don't want that, add another rule (should be the first one like =OR(ISBLANK($A1),ISBLANK($B1)) and check the box "Stop If True"