Conditional formating with two references

I don't know if the title of thread is right but here is what I'm trying to do.

I want Excel to bold any value in A1:A6 column that is lower than value in A1 cell, but if A1 cell is BLANK I would like Excel to automatically use value in cell A2 as measure/reference.

How to do that? Is that even possible? I believe it is

Thanks in advance.

1. highlight the range you want to apply the conditional formatting to (A1:A6)
2. on the home tab, styles, select CF
3. select new rule, select use formula
4. enter =A1<IF($A$1="",$A$2,$A$1) format fill as needed

You can try this:

1: Highlight cells A2:A6 and apply this CF formula:

=OR(AND(A$1="",A1<A$2),A1<A$1)

- Moo

It worked fine when I tested it. Did you re-type it, or copy/paste?
Check for a missing ) CF will tell you there is an error, but wont tell you what or where

Perhaps you should replace the commas with semicolons according to your regional settings?

Thanks for the assist Pepe

And thanks for the feedback, lvl

Originally Posted by lvl-48

Yep, that was the problem, thanks.

You're welcome. Indicating your location in your profile helped to find the answer. Some people indicate " Earth" as location or other funny things, which do not help us help them !