Why is Excel butchering my Conditional Formatting?

This happens when you Cut/Copy and then Paste lines within the applied range, in Excel 2000, 2003, 2007, and 2010 (I don't know about others).

it is still fully functional; if you consider then first and fifth line shown, they together define the complete range (just stupidly split), and the formula is identical for both (note that each formula is shown relative to the first cell it applies to; as the formula in the fifth line applies to $D$74, it contains ...$D$74... in it).

I have not found a way (looking for several years) to change that behavior. Whenever you copy or cut and then insert lines several times, Excel cuts the respective conditional formulas' ranges in pieces like this.

A manual workaround (to repair the formulas) is to

1. Select all lines except the first, chose 'Clear Rules from Selected Cells'. You will now have your conditional formatting only in the first line.
2. Open the Conditional Formatting manager, chose 'This worksheet', and extend all formulas to all lines (by typing :$nnnn over :$2).
3. Yes you will have to repeat that ever so often. As I said, I have not found a better solution in years.