How to use conditional formatting on multiple cells, depending on other cell values

Hi
I'd like to change a cell's fill colour depending on the values in another cell relative to it.
I've managed to use the formula to indicate what I want the cell to do, but I want to replicate it right down the column.

Here's an example...

If A2 is blank then B2 is yellow
If A3 is blank then B3 is yellow
If A4 is blank then B4 is yellow

And so on.
Simple query, tricky to find the answer.
Many thanks in advance.

That's brilliant! Many thanks

Actually not working....but I think that's my formula rather than 'applies to cells' part.

There are two rules:
=A2<>" "
(meaning A2 is not blank)
=A3=" "
(meaning A3 is blank)

I don't have the 'stop if true' boxes checked in the conditional formatting dialogue box - I want both rules to be true to trigger the font colour in B2.

As it stands, all the cells in column B are yellow, irrespective of the values in A.

Hope someone can disentangle this for me?

Try

=A2=""

Not

=A2=" "

Can you see the difference? The first one is looking for blanks, the second one is not.

Yes. Tried that too, but it's not working for some reason. All the cells are yellow rather than just the ones that meet these two conditions.

Have you checked the 'applies to' ranges?

Not sure of the exact cause but I have seen occasions where they can change unexpectedly when you edit the rules.

=A2="" to check blank

=A2<>"" to check non blank. Note in both cases, no space between the double quotes.

I thought the 'applies to' range is where the cell formatting appears? If so, then the formatting is appearing there, but not consistently with the rules.

You are correct, that is what the applies to range refers to, but it id it is out of alignment with the rule then it can produce unexpected results.

If you apply a rule, =A2="" to the range, $B$2:$B$100, then in theory B2 should relate to A2, B3 to A3, etc.

However it is based on the active cell when you apply the rule, so if select B2:B100, but B3 is the activecell, then applying =A2="" as a rule would apply the formatting 1 row lower than expected.

See if that helps you find the cause of the problem.

The cause is most likely something simple, finding it could be anything but simple without seeing the file.

Yes!
Thank you again.