Silly date question

[A Prince]

when I input =today() into a cell, instead of getting a date I get the response TRUE. I really need that cell to enter the current month into that cell. Once I get that working, I then want other cells to refer to that current month cell and then change colors based on how many months remain.

example...cell F23 shows Jul-11 (11 meaning 2011) I would like cell F23 to watch the cell that has the current month and when June comes around I would like cell F23 to turn green. When Jul hits, F23 should turn yellow and when Aug rears its ugly head, F23 should turn red. But first I have to get a cell to check the current date whenever I open the sheet.

Clear as mud?

 

[Andrew Poulsom]

What is the number format of the cell that contains =TODAY()? Does it change to upper case when you enter it in lower case?

 

[brans1982]

when I input =today() into a cell, instead of getting a date I get the response TRUE. I really need that cell to enter the current month into that cell. Once I get that working, I then want other cells to refer to that current month cell and then change colors based on how many months remain.

example...cell F23 shows Jul-11 (11 meaning 2011) I would like cell F23 to watch the cell that has the current month and when June comes around I would like cell F23 to turn green. When Jul hits, F23 should turn yellow and when Aug rears its ugly head, F23 should turn red. But first I have to get a cell to check the current date whenever I open the sheet.

Clear as mud?

=MONTH(TODAY()) - This will return 1-12 depending on what month it is. So in conditional formatting e.g =MONTH(TODAY())=6 - Format the cell to green ect.

 

[jim may]

First try Formatting F23 as MMM-YY (In the dates category)

With F23 the activecell goto conditional formatting and set up
3 rules (using the formulaIs box):

=Month(F23)=6 Format: Green
=Month(F23)=7 Format: Yellow
=Month(F23)=8 Format: Red

Good Luck,,,

 

[A Prince]

When I enter =MONTH(TODAY()) then it returns FALSE. The cell where I am entering this information is formated as a Date, Mar-01.

 

[A Prince]

Not sure which of the options when I format the cell to display date = MMM-YY

 

[Andrew Poulsom]

If you enter =today() in a cell does it change to upper case =TODAY(). What happens with =now()?

 

[A Prince]

As far as the comparison goes, I have several actions that need to take place in a given month, but that month can be ANY month during the year. In other words one cell might say Jun-11 and the cell below it could be Mar-12 and another cell be Aug-11. I would like those cells to "watch" the current month and year and when I have one month before the date in a cell, I would like that cell to turn green, indicating that I can start taking action. When the current month equals the month in the cell, I would like the cell to turn yellow, like a caution to get this done. If it has gone past that month, turn red as to show you missed the boat!

But first I need a cell to display the current month and year!! LOL

 

[A Prince]

OK, got the date thing working. I was suffering from "fat finger" syndrom. I was entering -=today() and did not notice the leading hyphen!

Now on the date issue. Any suggestions there?

 

[A Prince]

not hyphen, dash...lol