In Excel, how do I change cell color based on the selection made in a drop-down list?

Hello MarkDG1993,

Thank you for coming to the forum, I will be glad to help.

1. Click on cell with drop down list.
2. Select which answer to apply format to.
3. Click on "Home" tab, then click the "Styles" tool button on the ribbon.
4. Click "Conditional Formatting", in drop down list click the "*New Rule" option.
5. Select a Rule Type: "Format only cells that contain"
6. Edit the Rule Description: "Cell Value", "equal to", click the cell formula icon in the formula bar (far right), select which worksheet the validation list was created in, select the cell within the list to which you wish to apply the formatting. Formula should look something like: ='Workbook Data'!$A$2
7. Click the formula icon again to return to format menu.
8. Click on Format button beside preview pane.
9. Select all format options desired.
10. Press "OK" twice.

Have a wonderful day.

culled from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4590909/change-the-fill-color-of-a-cell-based-on-a-selection-from-a-drop-down-list-in-an

For more reading: https://support.office.com/article/fed60dfa-1d3f-4e13-9ecb-f1951ff89d7f

Sorry for the road-block.

What I normally do when I have to update a drop-down is clear and rebuild it again.

If that is a big challenge in your case, then you will have to allow me comb the web for a solution and get back to you.

Thanks for the step-by-step. I have another problem related to the first. I need to update the drop-down menu selections for a set of cells that already have an existing drop-down. When I go to Data Validation, however, I get the error message:

The selection contains more than one type of validation

Erase current settings and continue?

How do I get past this error?

Once I get this resolved, then I'll be able to set the colors for the new drop-down menu selections as you instructed previously.

Thanks again for the help!

Yeah, I've got ~175 rows with this drop-down on them. Whatever help you can provide will be greatly appreciated!