Comments on: How to conditionally format dates and time in Excel with formulas and inbuilt rules

See how to apply Excel conditional formatting to dates. Learn how to use formulas to highlight weekends and holidays, format cells when a value is changed to a date, shade upcoming dates and delays, conditionally format dates based on the current date, and more. Continue reading →

Comments page 8. Total comments: 758

  1. Hi,

    I am trying to create conditional formatting that will show 30 days before training will be required again on an annual basis.

    In cell B2 (C2, D2, etc.) I have the date that training took place. The next scheduled training for each training type would be 1 year later. 30 days prior to the 1 year expiry, I would like the date to turn red or the cell fill to be red so it will highlight that re-training is going to be required soon.

    Is this possible to do? Thank you for your help.

    Employee Name H&S at Work WMHIS
    XXXXXX 05/05/14 02/07/14

    1. I am also trying to create conditional formatting that will show 30 days before training will be required on an annual basis nut for mine training re-certification isn't a year from the date taken it is June 15th of every year. Is it possible to make a formula for this. My boss does not want expiry dates on spread sheets she just wants dates to turn red a moth before re-certification is required.

      Is this even possible? Thank you

    2. Hello Jane,

      Select all your columns with dates and use the following formula for your conditional formatting rule:
      =AND(TODAY()-B2 < 366, TODAY()-B2 > 336)

      1. Hi Dear,
        I want col S(Fee defaulter) to be
        1) Red fill
        if col E(Ending date) is over and Col Q(remaining Fee is greater than zero).
        2)and want light red fill
        if Col E(Ending date) is today and Q(remaining Fee is greater than zero)
        3)and if both the conditions are not met then want green fill
        Thanks in advance

      2. It works! Thank you very much! I tried other methods shown on other sites with no success. I appreciate your assistance.

  2. Hi, I have a date in A1 and a date in B1. How would I highlight B1 IF its date occurs after (or more recent than) the date in A1? I assume you could use conditional formatting for this, but I'm unsure of the formula. Thanks.

    1. Hi Eunice,

      Try creating a conditional formatting rule for cell B1 using this formula =$B1>$A1

      If you need to highlight other cells in column B as well, select them all before creating the rule.

  3. Hi,

    I've been trying to modify the formula based on your Example 2 but I still failed. Scenario: I want to highlight the cell in red if Status (Column C) is not "Closed" and the Due Date (Column M) is already exceeded. For example, Status is "In Progress" and Due Date is 10-Sep-14 but today is already 25-Sep-14. So, the formula I used was this: =AND($M2:$M500>DATEVALUE(M),$C2:$C500”Closed”) I have also formatted the Column M to be in Date format.

    So what went wrong? Hope you could explain. Thank you very much!

    1. Hello Perrin,

      In conditional formatting, the formula is written for the top-left cell of the range to which you apply the rule. And Excel adjusts the formula for all other cells correctly, like when you copy the formula to other cells manually. So, most likely you need the following formula:
      =AND(TODAY()>$M2, $C2<>"Closed")

  4. Hi,

    Just needed some help with conditional formatting. I have two columns both with dates - Column A and B. I want to highlight only the dates in B which occur before the dates in A. (e.g. if B is 4/30/2014 and A is 5/30/2014, then highlight cell B; if B is 5/24/2014 and A is 4/25/2014, do not highlight cell B.) Is that possible?

    1. Hi Lawrence,

      You can create a rule for column B with the same formula that is used for comparing numbers:
      =$B2<$A2 (assuming that your table has headers and row 2 is the top row with data)

  5. If u can please help me out of this matter. i want to put a formula that puts the expiry date of 1 year counting 365 days. i.e. if a date 01-01-2014 is written in cell(A) and i wish to have the date exactly after 1 year (365 days)in Red. URGENT PLEASE

    1. Hello Imran,

      You can use this formula to get the expiry date:
      =DATE(YEAR(A2)+1,MONTH(A2),DAY(A2))

      Where A2 is the cell with the original date.

      1. I have the same problem and this formula isn't working. any other suggestions?
        Many thanks

        1. Hello Beckie,

          I think I did not make myself clear in the previous response, my apologies. The above formula calculates the expiry date based on the value in cell A2. To highlight the expired dates, you can create a conditional formatting rule with this formula:

          =TODAY()>$A2+365

          Please see the results in this sample worksheet. If you are looking for something different, please clarify.

          1. Hi Svetlana,

            I am trying to recreate the above response to highlight the expired dates. I used conditional formatting using your formula =TODAY()>$A2+365 and this indeed worked. However, this only worked on the specific cell "A2." I'm trying to have the entire column checked for dates that are a year old. I tried highlighting the entire column but I was not successful. If you can please assist I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

  6. I have a spreadsheet that has a date in column A1 - it is a today date formula.
    I then have dates from Jan 2014 - May 2015 shown as each day (roster schedule), I have conditional formatting set up within the spreadsheet for various schedules (O/T/ leave etc) however I am wanting to highlight a single column based on what today's date is so "today" is easier to find when scrolling back and forward organising the schedule.

    Any suggestions?

    1. Is the above described condition possible to format? I have a similar need to where I would like a cell (L38) to change color when a different cell formatted as =Today() equals 12/1 of any given year. Meaning, I want the L38 cell to highlight yellow each year when today's date = 12/1. Additionally, I would like the highlight to stay active for seven days.

    2. Hi,

      I would like to add some formatting on cerain cells which contain dates. For example, I have a due date on colum A and a scheduled date on colum C. Now if the scheduled date is within 30 days of the due date, the scheduled date colum has to turn red.
      I would also like to highlight column n to red if column c is populated with dates and those dates are within 30 days of column A.

      Any help would be appreciated.

      Thank you,

      1. Hi Denis,

        Select column N (from N2 and below) and create a conditional formatting rule using this formula:
        =AND(C2<>"",A2-C2<30)

        Then select column C and create another rule with the same formula.

        1. I have a slightly different scenario than above. I have a date in column E and a date in column F. I need to highlight the date in column F if it is less than the date in column E.

          Thanks for any help you can provide.

        2. hello mijya excel help chaye agar ap help kar sakti ha to repli

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