The dollar sign in that formula is already set up so you can click/drag it across the whole row. The “B” part will stay the same while the 2 or 3 will update as you drag it. So you don’t have to manually rewrite it.

If you want to highlight a specific text value (like “spreadsheet” for example) you’d use something like this as your formula:

=A1=”spreadsheet”

For conditional formatting in Google Sheets to highlight cells containing specific text variations like “used,” “new,” or “old,” you can use the SEARCH function with a custom formula. Select the range, go to “Format” -> “Conditional formatting,” and choose “Custom formula is.” Enter a formula like =OR(SEARCH(“used”, $U2), SEARCH(“new”, $U2), SEARCH(“old”, $U2)) to check for the presence of any specified keyword in cell U2. Adjust the cell references and keywords as needed. This method allows you to handle variations in text and highlight cells accordingly.

for exact text,
=$U2=used would work if you’re not against using multiple conditional formatting formulas and if the fields it’s reading are only those exact words “used, new, old.”

using
=$U1=*new*
doesn’t work for that as it can’t understand the *text* in that format.
If there’s any variation in the field text, it doesn’t work either. It has to be exactly that text.

Try: $A1<C2

I combining the match functions with OR, but I get formula parse error.
=OR(MATCH(“*used*”,U2,0),MATCH(“*new*”,U2,0),MATCH(“*old*”,U2,0))

So how about referring to a value on cell?
example, my value is on cell C2, and the formatting range is on A1:A5.
how to make it works? I’ve tried to input =A1:A5<C2 but it doesn't work.

Regards,
Larry