Hi MarvinP,
thanks for your reply. The sample I sent wasn't very well thought out, in practice the spreadsheet has numerous columns and rows, but I omitted all of the non relevant columns and because of this the problem doesnt show. I will send over a reworked example with columns either side and then when you enter text into my "comments" column, you will see that the text goes red.
I have just tried your suggestion regarding the Absolute signs and I think this works (so thanks) however I'm a bit concerned that after entering comments, when you look at the conditional formtting, the range increases. EG if you enter text in cell D5, this gets added to the range (ok it hasnt turned red but this range will keep increasing despite the appliction of $ signs). So I'm not sure if this will work long term, as the range will keep increasing everytime someone adds a comment.

The revised file I will add shortly has some extra columns either side, and I have not added in the $ signs, so that you can see the problem. If you then change the formula as you suggested, yes it does work but bear in mind my comments above about the ranges changing.

Btw thanks ever so much for the response and would welcome any other advice

Wrighty50