only font color change in conditional formatting

Hi everybody,

Is there a way to change color of letters (font) in a cell if it equals the value of another cell WITHOUT changing the background color?
My table has alternate rows of slightly different background which greatly add to visibility of the data. Once I (conditionally) format data in one of the columns, the background "ladder" disappear in this column. I tried to restore the color manually by going to> format cell and putting the colors in the filling tab but there everything seems to e OK. But when I look at the table, the colors are not there.

Saying it in different words: I would like conditional formatting to change the color of the fonts but not the alternate rows' color of the background which orignally was in my table.

Is there a way to do it?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Which version are you using? Changing the Font via CF should not alter the background colour, unless you specified a fill colour (or lack thereof) in the CF formatting options.

Note: if you used one of the default rules, they might have specified No Fill if you changed to a custom format. Switch to the Fill tab and press the Clear button.

I'm using 2010.
In the meantime I discovered by accident that you are right, CF doesn't change the background color but only if I have data written in at least 2 rows already, then highlight the column and add the CF changing the font color for the whole column even though it's not filled yet. When I have just one row filled with data and do the same - the background color changes in the whole column for the one in the first row (no alternate color any more). As I work with several spreadsheets with similar data and layout, but some fill in faster, the others slower I didn't know it could make the difference.
BTW - "clear" button removes color completely, I've just checked it
Thanks anyway.

I mean the Clear button on the Fill tab of the CF format dialog. Naturally the other Clear clears the cell.

Also, if you apply the CF to the pivot table field (not the worksheet cells), it should not matter how many rows of data you have.

Hi Joe,

My excel must have life on its own because
a. Clear button of the CF window clears the background color of the cell(s) completely
b. applying CF to a column in a pivot table gives different results when only one row of data is filled and when there are more rows of data - concerning the background alternate rows of colors.

Why I'm so much attached to these colors? I don't know. It seemed just a pity to lose this easy-to-read appearance in some columns only because the numbers there are red or green.

Thanks again for your concern with my whimsical Excel 2010