MS Excel assistance

[Paul Edden]

I know - dull as dishwater....

Does anyone out there know how you manipulate an Excel Spreadsheet to make an individual cell change colour following a given event?

For example; Let's say that you are recording the expiry dates of 20 cars MOT's - it would be good to have the cell turn red on the day after the expiry date to remind you that it needs looking at.

As I said - dull as the day is long - but would be really useful for me in my business if anyone knows how to do it....

Many thanks,

[John K]

After an event, or based on a value?

Conditional formatting based on a value is fairly easy once you get your head round it.

I have to do this a lot, mainly making thins go red when it's all gone Pete Tong...

Setting something on an event might be tougher...

PM sent

[dave_t]

You'll need a cell with today's date in (for comparison), using the TODAY() function.

Then use conditional formatting (set up a new rule) on the cells that you want the colour to change on

[benedwards64]

You need to use conditional formatting. First make sure all of the cells are formatted as dates (not just plain text), highlight the relevant cells, then go Conditional Formatting --> Highlight Cells Rules. You may have to play around with the parameters a bit (I've not used this for dates before, usually for highlighting certain text or duplicate values) but I'm sure it can be done pretty easily

[John K]

Paul, PM bounced, said you could not receive new messages.

If you PM me your email, I will make contact.

All the chaps are right. It is possible to do some funky stuff like go yellow with 10 days to go and then red on the actual date etc...

Cheers

[tisme]

Conditional formatting for fairly basic stuff but if it's a bit more complicated or the "event" that you want to trigger your desired colour / cell change is based on something other than cell values or a formula, then it's really a Visual Basic (VB) Macro (and at which point I hand my spreadsheet over to my dearest - I'm ok at fixing cars, but I concede she's better at writing VB Macros ! ) 

[John K]

This YouTube vid is quite good and features date values...

[ACW]

Paul - If your stuck email me the XL file and I'll set it up and email it by return.

[Paul Edden]

Many thanks Guys - I will give this information to one of my ladies - and sit back to await the results!!!