conditional formatting apparently not working as expected in google spreadsheet. did the opposite of evaluating less than or equal to

Question

In the attached screenshot, you can clearly see that the value in the specified cell is obviously greater than the value in cell O1

and that my conditional formatting states that value is less than or equal to O1

Expected result

The fill is NOT green for O9 ( 17.32 ) which is definitely greater than O1 ( 15.80 ).

Actual result

The fill is green for O9 despite the values and the rule.

I have no idea why this is the case, and I have already sent a help request to Google with a screenshot 1 week ago. The issue persists.

How do I fix this?

Answer 1

Either you use a custom formula in your conditional formatting.

=($O9<$O$1)*($O9<>"")

or you use less than =$O$1

Note the = is important!