Need help with conditional formatting

Thank you, so much. You were so quick!
But, it still doesn't work. If I change the text to be only a date, and remove "desired text" and replace it with "date" will it read any date and change the format color of the original cell?
I really appreciate not feeling alone in this... :-)

Hi! Thanks for helping. But it still doesn't work. This is what the rule looks like now:
=ISTEXT(SEARCH("Desired Text",E8))
and the original cell (A8) remains unchanged.
If I want it read just a date, would I change it to:ISTEXT(SEARCH("DATEt",E8)) ?

I really, really appreciate your help! LeslieAnne

you just need to use ISTEXT(D1).
This checks if the cell contains text. DATE and TEXT=TEXT
If you have DATE or TEXT then another solution is needed as ISTEXT does not detect Dates.

If you have DATE or TEXT in the Cell try this:

=OR(ISTEXT(D1),ISNUMBER(D1))

The cell references should be handled by the conditional formatting.
You dont need to copy anything down.

Select the range of cells that you want to format, choose Conditonal Formatting from the menu, Choose formula, enter the formula and pick the color.

I should say that if you do have a Number in the cell, say 123, that this will also be colored. If this is the case and is not desirable then you will have to make your own ISDATE function in VBA.

create a module and paste this in.

Function myIsDate(rng As Range)
myIsDate = IsDate(rng)
End Function

Then use it like this:

=OR(ISTEXT(D1),myIsDate(D1))