How to Highlight Days of the Week Excel Conditional Formatting: 3 Ways

One of the best ways to analyze data is by using Excel. Here one of its most useful features is conditional formatting. If you ask how to highlight days of the week excel conditional formatting, we can write down the answer here. Because conditional formatting is a great way to highlight specific data points in your spreadsheet after determining your certain criteria.

How to highlight days of the week excel conditional formatting?

Conditional formatting can format cells based on certain criteria automatically. With this tool, you can highlight specific data points, make charts more informative and even detect errors. One of best things about conditional formatting is it is easy. Now, we will focus on conditional formatting for dates.

Understanding excel conditional formatting dates

Before we dive into conditional formatting, it is essential to understand how dates work in Excel. Dates in Excel are stored as serial numbers. And it means that they are just numbers that represent a date. For example, January 1, 2022 is represented by the number 44519. Excel does this because it makes it easy to perform calculations on dates.

Basic Conditional Formatting for Dates

Conditional formatting for dates can wok for a variety of purposes. You can use it to highlight dates for overdue, upcoming deadlines or dates falling within a certain range. If you wanna apply basic conditional formatting for dates, you can follow these step.

1. First, you can select the cells containing the dates you want to format.
2. You can go to the Home tab and click on Conditional Formatting.
3. Now you will click on Highlight Cell Rules and select A Date Occurring.
4. Then, you will choose the formatting you want to apply.
5. And click OK to apply the formatting.

Advanced Conditional Formatting for Dates

Basic conditional formatting for dates is great for simple tasks. But sometimes you need more advanced features.

1. Highlight Dates Within a Certain Range:

For dates falling within a specific range, you can use conditional formatting. In case you wish a certain range to be highlighted, you can highlight all the dates within the next 30 days. You can do this by following these steps.

1. You should select the cells with dates you want to format.
2. Then, you go to Home tab and click on Conditional Formatting.
3. Now, you click on New Rule and select Use a formula to determine which cells to format.
4. In the Format values where this formula is true box, you can enter the formula “=AND(A1>TODAY(),A1<=TODAY()+30)” (we are assuming your dates are in column A).
5. Now, you choose the formatting that you want to apply.
6. You click “OK” to apply the formatting.

2. Highlight Dates That Are Overdue: excel rules highlight past due date

If you want to highlight overdue dates, you can use conditional formatting. Here, you can highlight all the due dates over a week ago. So if you need to create a table highlighting past  due dates in color, you can follow these steps.

1. For this one, you can again click on Conditional Formatting.
2. Now you can click on New Rule and select Use a formula to determine which cells to format.
3. In the Format values where this formula is true box, you will enter the formula “=AND(A1<TODAY(),A1>=TODAY()-7)” (assuming your dates are in column A).
4. Afterwards, you can choose the formatting that you want to apply.

3. Highlight Dates Based on Day of the Week: excel conditional formatting based on date

You can also use conditional formatting to highlight dates based on the day of the week. You can highlight any condition you can create but let’s go simple here. We can highlight all the Fridays in a table for example. Now you can follow  first 3 same steps and then below.

1. In the Format values where this formula is true box, you should enter the formula “=WEEKDAY(A1)=6”
2. Now, you can choose the formatting that you want to apply and click ok.

Tips for Using excel conditional formatting dates

1. Use Custom Date Formats

One of the best things about conditional formatting is using custom date formats. This means you can choose the way that the dates are displayed. So, you can choose them as Month-Day-Year or Day-Month-Year.

2. Apply Formatting Whole Column

When you apply formatting to many cells, it only applies to that range. If you want the formatting to apply to the entire column, you need to select the whole column before applying.

3. Use the “Manage Rules” Feature

The Manage Rules feature can edit and delete your conditional formatting rules. This feature is especially useful if you have a lot of rules to manage.

Conclusion on conditional date formatting in excel

Formatting for dates can help every Excel users for better organization of your data. Whether you need to highlight overdue dates, upcoming deadlines or dates within a specific range, conditional formatting  is a must learn formula for everyone.

FAQs

1. Can I use conditional formatting for dates in Google Sheets? Yes, Google Sheets also has formatting for dates.
2. So is it possible to apply multiple conditional formatting rules to a single cell? Yes, you can apply multiple rules to a single cell. But you should craft all conditions separately tough.
3. How can I remove conditional formatting from a cell? In case you wanna remove conditional formatting from a cell, you will select the cell and go to the Home tab. Then, you can click on Conditional Formatting and then, you can click on Clear Rules.
4. What to do for conditional formatting for times? You can use conditional formatting for times in the same way as for dates.