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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-14T21:30:50+00:00

I have two columns, Start and Finish (both dates), that I would like to

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I have two columns, Start and Finish (both dates), that I would like to utilize for conditional formatting. To the right of the Start and Finish columns, I have, essentially, a calendar, with each column representing a month (e.g. J for January, F for February, M, A, etc.). In this calendar, I’d like to fill the two cells that indicate the start and finish date. For example, if my Start value was Jan 2013 and my Finish value was March 2013, it would apply the fill to those respective cells.

I have explored the “Conditional Formatting” menu, and I assume I have to use a formula, but I’m not really sure how to implement a formula. Is this the best method? Are there any other ways? Would VB simplify this task?

I assume that I could apply conditional formatting to each cell, something like the following pseudocode:

=IF(startDate is January 2013) then use the formatting defined in this dialog box
=IF(startDate is February 2013) then use the formatting defined in this dialog box

And so on for each date. However, I’m wary of the syntax. Per Tech on the Net, it defines the =IF syntax as follows:

IF( condition, [value_if_true], [value_if_false] )

Clearly, the condition is matching the dates, whereas the value_if_true and value_if_false don’t really make sense to me, because I’m not returning a value, I’m only formatting the cells conditionally.

Thank you!

Update: Here is a picture of the general layout, that is, there is a row for each task, which corresponds to the calendar.

Spreadsheet

Here is the formula I’m trying to use for conditional formatting:

=MONTH($B6)=COLUMNS($D6:AM6)

I think I need to setup my column headers for months differently. Right now, they are just single letters as text for brevity sake, but I’ll enter a date and format the headers properly. Will update with progress.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Are you saying there’s just a single cell for each month? If so then assuming start date in A2, end date in B2 then 12 month cells in D2:O2 then try this:

    Select D2:O2 and apply this formula in conditional formatting

    =MONTH($A2)=COLUMNS($D2:D2)

    apply required format > OK

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