change color of cells based on text in another

Hey guys and gals,
I'm a relative newbie to excel.
I have a problem that I'm betting one of you can easily solve.
I have one column where only the following words will ever be entered. : welder, carpenter, wash bay, and yard. This column is column H. I would like to change to color in the B cell in the same row each time one of these words is entered into a cell in column h.
I would like this to work for the entire sheet.
Is this possible? I have googled it and tried several options but I can't get any of them to work. I could be just a dummy. Please help!

You can use conditional formatting for this. Highlight column B, then click on conditional formatting | New Rule | Use a formula... , and put this formula in the dialogue box:

=$H1="welder"

Click on the Format button, then the Fill tab and choose the colour that you want for this condition, then OK twice to exit the dialogue box. Repeat this for the other words, selecting a new colour each time.

Hope this helps.

Pete

Try this with Conditional Formatting

Highlight B range==>Conditional Formatting==>New rule==>Use a formula ...==>enter formula below==> Format==> choose Colour ==> OK

=AND(OR(H3="welder",H3="Carpenter",H3="Wash Bay",H3="Yard"),B3=H3)

Thank you so much guys I used Pete's and it worked great. And I'm sure John's would have worked as well.

Glad to be able to help.

If that takes care of your original question, please select Thread Tools from the menu above your first post and mark this thread as SOLVED.

Also, since you are relatively new to the forum, you might like to know that you can directly thank those who have helped you by clicking on the small "star" icon located in the lower left corner of a post that you have found to be helpful (not just in this thread - for any post that has helped you). This also adds to the reputation of the poster (the small green bars in the poster's profile).

Pete