Use F2 to format

[jrobin5881]

I have a weird thing is happening on my spreadsheet. I have two columns with dates (e and f). I want the one cell (e) to conditional format to red if it is less then the cell in the column (f) next to it. I've tried everything and the only way I seem to get it to work is if I press the "F2" key in Column e and work my way down. This is tedious with 15k worth of rows. I've tried trim feature, copy paste all kinds of things. Heres an example:

04/17/04 09/23/06
07/16/04 10/25/06
07/16/04 10/18/06
03/09/05 10/24/06
12/09/05 06/30/06
12/13/04 05/04/06
11/24/03 02/15/07
12/13/04 04/28/06
10/16/03 02/17/07

The first four rows formatted correctly and they move to the right after I hit F2. I have both columns formatted as dates in the cell formatting.

 

[SkipVought]

Hi,

Format/Conditional Formatting...

Skip,

_[red][/red]

 

[SkipVought]

I may have misinterpreted your question.

Try entering the value [red]1[/red] in an unused cell.

Copy the value

select the DATED in columns E & F

Edit/Paste Special - MULTIPLY

Skip,

_[red][/red]

 

[xlbo]

Yup - you have TEXT which LOOKS like dates - you need to do what Skip suggests to make Excel consider them all to be dates - then the CF will work

Rgds, Geoff

We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colours but they all live in the same box.

Please read FAQ222-2244 before you ask a question