Conditional Formatting with Hidden Rows

Hoping someone can help me do this more quickly than I might otherwise solve it.

I have a very large sheet that has various permutations/combinations of tags (e.g., for simplicity, imagine having 3 colors and 3 numbers. I would have two columns (color & number) & 9 rows, one row for every color/number combination.). However, among these permutations, many rows are automatically hidden based on external criteria (for this example, add a 3rd column, now with a "Hide?" flag that indicates a yes/no for excel to automatically hide that row).

What I want to do is apply conditional formatting in each of the tag cells (color/number in this case) that highlights the cell if it differs from the nearest *non-hidden* cell above it. E.g., in the example below, the "Number" cells (beyond the first entry) would always be highlighted, and the first "Red" of the *non-Hidden* row (row 5 in this case) would be highlighted. None of the "Blue", nor the 2nd *non-Hidden* "Red" would be highlighted.

Color	Number	Hide?
Blue	1	No
Blue	2	No
Blue	3	No
Red	1	Yes
Red	2	No
Red	3	No

Appreciate any insight you can give to this task!

Hello quark20 and Welcome to Excel Forum.
Assuming the word "Color" is in cell A1 try:
The formula applied as a conditional formatting rule for A3:A7 is: =OR(AND(A3<>A2,C3="No"),AND(A3<>A1,C2="Yes"))
The formula applied as a conditional formatting rule for B3:B7 is:=OR(AND(B3<>B2,C3="No"),AND(B3<>B1,C2="Yes"))
Let us know if you have any questions.