Expert: Stuart Resnick - 6/20/2009

Question
re q: "hi - wonder if you can help me, I'm having such a time with date formulas that I want to put into conditional formatting.
i.e.  if I have a date that is less than 60 days but not as much as 30 days then I want it to turn orange, and if it is less than 30 days then turns to red.... basically a point in which I panick that I haven't sorted it out by then date."

I see what you mean!! - I really should just say approx 2  months before the date expires (to todays date) then it should go red, 1 month before it expires to todays date it should go orange...basically a visual warning that I need to do something with this as time is running out, i.e. before 2 months its telling me a warning, then if it goes red then I only have 1 month to complete it.

does that make sense?

Answer
Select cell(s). For this example, we'll say that the upper-left corner of the range selected is cell B2. From main menu, choose:

Format, Conditional Formatting, Formula Is, =(B2-today())<30, Format, Patterns, [Orange], OK, Add, Formula Is, =(B2-today())<60, Format, Patterns, [Red], OK, OK.

(In the future, please be more clear with your question. Instead of saying "it should go red," say WHAT should be red! Otherwise, as in this case, I have to guess what you want.)