Excel Conditional Formatting with the TODAY function | Duplicate Rule

Posted on:  05/16/2022
Excel Conditional Formatting with the TODAY function | Duplicate Rule

The TODAY function is one of my favorite Date & Time functions in Excel. It returns the current date and will automatically update. We will use the TODAY function with Conditional Formatting and create three rules on a date field.

Excel Conditional Formatting with the Today Function

Excel Conditional Formatting with the Today Function

The date field can be any date field - order date, invoice date, request date, etc. I used the ship date in my example. If the cell's date equals the current date, we will put that one color, any dates less than today's date in another color, and dates greater than today in a third color.

Conditional formatting is located on the Home tab. After writing the first rule, =$G2=TODAY(), I copied the rules to create the other two rules. Here is a screenshot of all three rules.

Recent Microsoft Word articles

YouTube Video - Conditional Formatting with the TODAY Function

Chapters/Bookmarks

  • 0:00 Intro
  • 0:26 Ship date
  • 0:44 Rule 1 - $G2=TODAY()
  • 1:47 Mixed Reference
  • 3:57 Rule 2 - Duplicate rule
  • 4:47 Rule 3
  • 5:20 Resize Conditional Formatting
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TODAY Function

=TODAY() The TODAY function has no arguments and will return the current date. When the file is open again, the date will automatically update.It is a great Date & Time Function. 

 

TODAY Function in Excel

TODAY function in Excel

Conditional Formatting Rules

Three rules:

  1. Greater Than
  2. Less Than
  3. Equal To
Conditional Formatting Rules

Three conditional formatting rules

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Chris Menard

Chris Menard is a Microsoft Trainer (MCT) and works as a full-time Trainer at BakerHostetler - one of the largest law firms in the US. Chris runs a YouTube channel with 900+ technology videos that cover various tools such as Excel, Word, Zoom, Teams, Gmail, Copilot, Google Calendar, and Outlook. To date, the channel has helped over 20 million viewers. Menard also does 2 to 3 public speaking events yearly, presenting at the Administrative Professional Conference (APC), the EA Ignite Conference, the University of Georgia, and CPA conferences. You can connect with him on LinkedIn at https://chrismenardtraining.com/linkedin or watch his videos on YouTube at https://chrismenardtraining.com/youtube.

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