Scheduler and Conditional Formatting

I was wondering if someone might be able to help me out with something I can't manage to get my head round. I'm not sure if this is the right to be posting this thread - I've a feeling though that the problem may only be able to be solved using VBA.
I'm creating a work scheduler in Excel 2004 - 2 linked sheets covering half a year each with a month overlap from the first sheet to the second sheet.
The formatting of the diary elements all hang off the cell containing the first date - i.e. cell A3 = 01/01/2006.
What I'd like to do do is get all the cells in the rows directly below each date cell to look at cell A3 to get their formatting. At the moment I have the following condition formatting to run against each cell within the schedule:

Condition 1:

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then font colour = X and pattern colour = Y
Condition 2:

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then font colour = X and pattern colour = Z
Condition 3:

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then font colour = W and pattern colour = none

I can copy the conditional formatting horizontally without any problem but when I try to copy vertically it screws up as the next cell down in the schedule is trying to get its formatting from the cell A4 which has no date and results in no formatting
Bascially I need each of the cells in a column to reference the one header cell (all column A cells to reference cell A3 for example). It would be great if the whole of the formatting for all cells could hang off the first date cell - but I expect that is asking too much.

To further elucidate put these in for your conditional formatting. As Excelenator says adding in the "$" symbol locks the referencing point. $A3 locks the A colyumn, A$3 would lock the 3 row and $A$3 lockes both the column and the row, i.e. the cell itself. Does that make any sense? No matter try inserting the below into your conditional formatting:

Condition 1:

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then font colour = X and pattern colour = Y

Condition 2:

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then font colour = X and pattern colour = Z

Condition 3:

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then font colour = W and pattern colour = none

They paste the formatting as you would normally.

Thanks for your replies, guys. Maybe I didn't explain clearly enough what I am trying to achieve. So I'll try to give you a clearer idea:

I've got a row of dates 1/1/2006 ... 31/12/2006 in row starting in A3

Below I've got a line for each employee - Rows 6 ... 26. When I copy and paste the formatting for cell A6 across the width I want it to reference the date at the top of the relevant column i.e. cell D6 should reference cell D3, cell F12 should reference cell F3, etc.

What you have suggested, Tristan, works but means I have to manually change the conditional formatting on the first employee row for each cell across the full width - tedious, but workable!

Is there any way I can do this to avoid the chore?

Thanks again.

Hmmm...

Pretty sure what I suggested above should work. It does on mine and I don't have to manually change the formatting for each date.

How are you copying your formatting over. Do you use the format painter to do it? It's the brush icon on your toolbar?

Honestly this does work. Enter what was written above into the conditional formattting for cell A6, making sure you've got the "$" symbols in the right place. Then click the paintbrush icon and drag across all the cells you want the formatting to apply to.

Good luck

Tris