How to autofill the condition in conditional formatting in Excel?

Question

Column A has a number 1-10. Column B has a string I want to highlight with conditional formatting. How do I make it so that if the number in Column A is greater than 7, the cell in the same row in Column B will automatically turn blue?

I use the conditional formatting tool for cell B1 such that, in the "Use a formula to determine which cells to format" option, I have ="IF($A1 > 7)", then fill the cell with blue.

But, as I drag/autofill down, the 1 in $A1 does not become A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, etc. as I want it to. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Change the formula to:

=$A1 > 7

And take a look at my yoursumbuddy post, which explains why you don't need IFs in Conditional Formatting:

Answer 2

Select B1, then column B (This should make all the cells bluish except the cell B1, which is said to be the 'active' cell).

Open up conditional formatting and use the formula:

=IF($A1 > 7, 1)

You need to at least specify the value if true and there's no need to drag the conditional formatting down.