Conditional formatting based on the current date?

Hi,

I'd like to highlight tasks (specifically the Start date cell) a color when that date is less than the current date (today) and Completion is 0% or null. In other words, which tasks were supposed to start but have not yet started. I realize this is a complex condition that uses two fields but it would be helpful as a PM tool.

SS doesn't seem to allow a date condition to be defined using the current date. Meaning, it should recognize today's datestamp as part of the condition and not require me to enter a specific date as a new condition every time I want to run it.

Similarly, this would be helpful to apply to Finish dates that are less than the current date.

Am I missing something? If not, this seems to be an enhancement opportunity.

Thanks.

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Comments

Bryan Anderson

Hi,

Smartsheet can do this. When you are setting up your Condition, there are two ways to set the criteria for a column. 1) pick from a list, or 2) Define custom criteria. If you define custom criteria you can select "is in the past", "is in the future", or "is today" from a drop down.

checkout step 4 here:

http://help.smartsheet.com/customer/portal/articles/516359-conditional-formatting

That step talks about this option.

Polly Peterson

Hello -- I would like to do something similar with conditional formatting. But I would like to be able to select how far in the past (or future) the condition applies. Such as apply XYZ formatting if the start date is more than 3 days in the past. This would require "today" to be variable, so that something like "Start Date is less than Today-3days" would be possible.

Any work-arounds for this?

Thanks!

Bobby Andres

Polly, conditional formatting can be used to say "if its in the last 3 days, apply this format" but it cannot say, "if its more than 3 days in the past, apply this format". There is a way to do this though...

Add a checkbox column to your sheet with a formula that will check the box if the corresponding date is less than today - 3. Like this:

=IF([Start Date]13 < TODAY(-3), 1)

Then set your formatting rule based on the checkbox column (apply formatting if checkbox is checked).