Note: it’s important that CF formulas be entered relative to the “active cell” in the selection, which is assumed to be B4 in this case. Once you save the rule, you’ll see the dates greater than 8/1/2015 are highlighted.

Greater than or equal to, etc.

Of course, you can use all of the standard operators in this formula to adjust behavior as needed. For example, to highlight all dates greater than or equal to 8/1/2015, use:

Use another cell for input

There is no need to hard-code the date into the rule. To make a more flexible, interactive rule, use another cell like a variable in the formula. For example, if you want to use cell C2 as an input cell, name cell C2 “input”, enter a date, and use this formula: Then change the date in cell C2 to anything you like and the conditional formatting rule will respond instantly.

Dave Bruns

Hi - I’m Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.