Applying conditional formatting to multiple individual cells

[nbvcxcbncvxgbhvfjxcd]

Goal: change background color based on value relative to the value of a cell. (i.e. I want the background of B1, C1, and D1 to be red if higher than A1, and green if lower)

Problems: If I try to apply conditional formatting to multiple cells at a time it spits out garbage (some cells despite being a lower value turn red, some turn green despite being a higher value)
Trying to clone formatting simply adds the new cell to the conditional formatting cell range of the donor cell, resulting in the same garbage output that does me no good.

The only way I can currently get it to output what I want is to individually apply the desired conditional formatting, but that is not a reasonable solution when I need to apply it to thousands of cells. So is there a good way to do this, or is the software just garbage?

[EarnestAl]

@nbvcxcbncvxgbhvfjxcd

I want the background of B1, C1, and D1 to be red if higher than A1, and green if lower

And if the cell is the same value?
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When you are comparing them to a single fixed cell make sure you use absolute addressing when you refer to it, that is $A$1. All cells will then compare to cell A1. The easiest way is when you are in the dialogue creating the greater than or less than rule, is to click in cell A1 and it will automatically enter a an absolute value for the entire workbook, for example $Sheet1.$A$1. You can use this comparison across different sheets.
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If you use just A1 as the address then B1 will compare to it, but C1 will compare to B1, D1 compare to C1, etc. This is useful is some cases, just not for yours.
ConditionalAbsoluteAddress.ods (9.0 KB)