Help with conditional formatting

[Timbo50]

(Excel 2016) I have a row of cells that 'vlookup' values from another workbook. I want to conditionally format cells that have a minus value, the same as I have in other parts of the sheet. However, I cannot get these particular cells to format. I'm obviously missing something. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[oldbrewer]

if you use in say cell C3 =C3<0 then negative values will format as you want

 

[Timbo50]

Hi, many thanks for the response. Your formula is the one I already use and it works in other columns, but not this one. I was beginning to think it was about the formula in the cell I want to format. Namely it's a vlookup getting values from another workbook.

 

[philwojo]

Could be the data coming back is not a value but is text from your vlookup's. You could try this in C3 for the CF:

=value(c3)<0

 

[Timbo50]

Hi Phil & Oldbrewer, the value I wanted formatting was coming back from a web query that ended up in a table. Once I put my 'vlookup' inside a value parenthesis all is well. many thanks to both of you for your help.

 

[oldbrewer]

glad you are sorted....