Sorting with Conditional Formatting - reverts to Absolute

[Solon Aquila]

I'm using Excel to keep track of various projects (one row per project).
Some of the projects have 3 or 4 things to do, so I chose open cells a few columns over and used conditional formatting to have them turn green when I type "X" in them. The first column for that row has the same conditional formatting (If cell value is X, turn green) and they work fine.

I tried sorting and found out that the conditional formatting isn't following the data. So I dug around and found out that it's the Absolute referencing. No problem, I went through, highlighted the various rules, and used F4 to 'cycle' through so I have absolute column references with relative row references.

Here's where it gets goofy - as soon as I click Apply, it reverts back to absolute column/absolute row ($ has been added back to my row reference).

So I tried manually entering a few references and got the same thing: my Excel Conditional Formatting is hooked on absolute references and refuses to let them go.

I poked around the options, but maybe it's there and I'm just not seeing it.
I also poked around the forums and didn't see a thread covering this particular one. If there's one out there, please just point me to it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Solon