Changing Cell color based on "not ="

[Mark]

Does anyone know how to change the color of all the cells
in a column that are not = to the value to the left. I can
do this in "conditional formatting" but that would mean I
have to do it one cell at a time, and there are 3699 rows.
Example: if E1 does not = D1 then E1 is red.

 

[Mark]

That would be fine but all that does is turn all the cells
red as they are all different values. Its 2 columns the
cells on the left (D) show onhand inventory this location.
The cells on the right (E) show onhand "all" locations.
all of the numbers in each cell are different. and if I
hilte the whole "E" column and do conditional formatting
for the whole "D" column it gives an error message: "Ypu
can not use a direct reference to a worksheet range in a
conditional formatting formula. Change the reference to a
single cell, or use the reference with a worksheet
function, such as =SUM(a1:e5)". is there a formula that I
could use to automate it?

 

[Dan E]

Mark,

Now i'm not clear on what you need, if I understood correctly (which I guess
I didn't) what you were looking for was to have something like
D E
1 3
2 2
3 3
4 5

In which case the 3 and the 5 (in the E column) should change color, correct
me if i'm wrong?

Dan E

 

[Adam I.]

Pick any one cell from one of the columns (say, E1).
Then, using Conditional Formatting, "cell value is not
equal to" .. pick the cell in the next/previous column
(here, D1) -- EXCEPT, by default Excel inputs "=$D$1" --
change it to "=$D1", then pick your pattern. Use format
painter to copy E1's format to entire column. It will now
separately compare each cell to the one next to it...