Conditional Formatting using borders or colors-help!

[NCHarpist]

Hi!
Thanks in advance for your help.
2 Simple Conditional formatting problems. I'm using MS Office 2010.
Question 1 - I want to put a border between cells with different text:

Row Column A
_______________
1 Steve Gold
_______________
2 John Doe
3 John Doe
4 John Doe
_______________
5 Tom Brown
6 Tom Brown
_______________
7 Sarah Smith
8 Sarah Smith
9 Sarah Smith
10 Sarah Smith
_______________
11 Jane Green
_______________

Question 2 - Now, if you could show me how to apply no fill and alternating blue color that would be GREAT!
Example:
Steve Gold would be blue
the 3 John Doe cells would be plain
the 2 Tom Brown cells would be blue
the 4 Sarah Smith cells would be plain
the 1 Jane Green would be blue.

Many thanks
NCHarpist

[AndyLitch]

1. Select A1:A11
2. Select Conditional formatting
3. Select New Rule
4. Enter function =A1<>A2
5. Set the formatting for a top border

Add a new rule
= Or(A1="Steve Gold",A1="Tom Brown", A1="Jane Green") ............. set the format for blue

[JosephP]

for formatting the bands use a formula rule with formula
=MOD(INT(SUM(1/COUNTIF($A$1:$A1,$A$1:$A1))),2)=1