Excel 2007 : Formatting a cell to match other cells (if they match)

Hi,
I have a question - I would like to format a cell (its fill in colour) to match two other cells (assuming they match). this is a resource pipeline view - cell A3 has a specific project (highlighted in yellow), cell a4 has another (highlighted in blue), etc. dynamic list of projects that can have upto 12 projects (some day more). Resources are listed in rows 18 through 33. dates are listed in columns C through CZ. When I assign a resource to a project for a specific date i highlight the approprate cells with the corresponding color for the project. what i would like excel to do is automatically highlight the project line as well - rows 3 through 10.

the way i see it, i would need a fomula in cell 3C; if format of 3A=18C or 19C or 20C or 21C or 22C or 23C, etc., then format 3C is the same as 3A.

any direction or help would be great,
thanks,
Teddy

Peter,
I guess I am in Luck - I am using 2007. Any suggestions on how?
Teddy

Peter,
thanks in advnace for your help (especially at this early hour).
I was going to manually format cell C18 - either yellow or orange, etc. If i do the manual format, how would I then compare the formating of cells C18 and A3?
Teddy

Please have a look at this, I have added only 3 formats in at the moment, but as many as you want can be added.
Try typing in an 1,2 or 3 into the range D18 to CQ26.
Are we heading in the right direction?
Regards
Peter

Peter,
Yes this is certainly in the right direction. now i just need to populate rows 3-9 with the correct format/color based on the value i enter in rows 18-26. right now if i enter a 2 in D18, it turns cell 3D orange - it should turn 4D orange only (no mater how many times i enter a 2 in column D)

Once again, thanks for your help.
Teddy

Peter,
I was playing around with this and think I figured it out. I am using the formula below in row 3, could you please let me know if there is a better way to write this formula and/or a better way to edit it (the formula bar in "conditional formating" is small and not very user friendly)

=IF(D18=$A$3,TRUE,IF(D19=$A$3,TRUE,IF(D20=$A$3,TRUE,IF(D21=$A$3,TRUE,IF(D22=$A$3,TRUE,IF(D23=$A$3,TRUE,IF(D24=$A$3,TRUE,IF(D25=$A$3,TRUE,IF(D26=$A$3,TRUE,FALSE)))))))))

Thanks,
Teddy

Teddy,
The formula is fine, you could of also used the "or" funtion; EXCEPT you don't have a value in D18, D19,D20,D21,D22,D23,D24,D25 OR D26, and I'm still trying to figure out what your intentions are.I would love to help except, each post I've asked are you intenting to type in a value. I don't have a crystal ball, I don't have the back ground history, I still don't fully understand what you want as a result.
So please answer the questions otherwise I find imposable to help you.
Regards
Peter

Peter,
Sorry - I didn’t realize I wasn’t clear. This is the back ground. There are several managers with several resources working on several projects. This tool is intended to help organize and communicate what everyone is working on. The list of projects (which are in B3:B10) is dynamic and last around 2-3 months. The list of resources (which is B18:B26) is less dynamic but in reality there are more resources. The idea is for the manager to assign there resources to projects – they would enter the appropriate project reference number (1,2,3,etc.) in the row of the resource under the appropriate weekly date range. They could assign a resource to work on several projects within that week (it is not important to show what project the resource worked on a specific date (e.g. Resource 1 work on project 6193 on Monday and Tuesday and then 7120 the rest of the week). All we need to know is that Resource 1 is working on two projects 6193 and 7120. This way everyone can see what projects they are working on, how long they will be working on these projects.
The final piece of the puzzle is to rollup the actual resource info up to the project level. In rows 3 through 10, the cell would be highlighted if one or more resource are working on a specific project (based on the manager assignment). This would be a dash board view so managers/upper management could see when projects would be started, worked and completed.
I really appreciate your help and I hope this explains better.
Teddy

Peter,
In the attached file you can see how I think this should work – however I a open to any suggestions you may have.

The manager entered the following info for their resource work for the week of Oct 25th (on rows 18 through 20):
Resource 1, assigned to project 6193 for 25% and project 6176 for 25% of his time (the remaining time is open/available)
Resource 2, assigned to project 6176 for 50% of his time (the remaining time is open/available)
Resource 3, assigned to project 6387 for 25% and project 6193 for 25% and project 6176 for 50% of his time (fully loaded)

The rollup shows that only these three projects are being worked. With more data (real world info.) it will also show when projects start and finish – in this sample case I would know 6193 will start and finish in mid week, 6176 will take the whole week and 6387 will be done early in the week.
Teddy

Peter,
by the way, is there a way to lock the formating of boarders and still allow a user to modify the text?
Teddy

Peter,
I think I am there - the only question Ihave is with formulas. This formula is not correct, =IF((OR(C38:C51=$A$3)),TRUE,FALSE). What I was hoping to do is to reture a True or False if any value in the C38:C51 range was the same as A3.

Any suggestions?
Teddy