Conditional Formatting with multiple rules

Hi There,

First time poster here, thanks in advance for any time anyone may spend reading this post.

I am trying to use conditional formatting in my spreadsheet to give an easy visual cue that work needs to be done. We have work duties that need to be completed with in 15 days, then checked on within 120 days, then closed out completely within 180 days.

My first column is the start date
Second Column is a calculated column that is Start date + 15
The third column I will enter the date when the 15 day check is completed.

I have formatted this column so that it will highlight values in the second column that are within 3 days of today (Not sure if I used the best method for this, I used the rule Cell value, less than or equal to, =today()+(3).). I have plugged in example dates and this seems to be working correctly.

Now I want to add a rule in front of that, that will basically state, to ignore the previous rule, if the 3rd column contains a date (Which indicates that we have completed that task). I see the function that states "Stop if true", and it seems all I need is to setup a rule that states check column 3 for a value, and if it is blank then proceed, if it contains anything, then stop and do not process the second rule.

In summary, I would like the 2nd column text to turn red when the 15 date window is approaching, but once a date has been entered in the 3rd column, ignore this and return the text to default.

Hope this makes sense, thanks again.

Thank you very much Miraun. I wasn't exactly sure at first, but through brief trial and error, my spreadsheet is looking fantastic. I appreciate the quick response, and wish I could offer more thanks than clicking the reputation button.

EDIT:Forgot to mention that I had not even been aware of the =Isblank function, this will be awesome for other applications that I use excel on!

Originally Posted by FDibbins

Based on your last post it seems that you are satisfied with the solution(s) you've received but you haven't marked your thread as SOLVED. I'll do that for you now but please keep in mind for your future threads that Rule #9 requires you to do that yourself. If your problem has not been solved you can use Thread Tools (located above your first post) and choose "Mark this thread as unsolved".
Thanks.

Also, as a relatively new member of the forum, you may not be aware that you can thank those who have helped you by clicking the small star icon located in the lower left corner of the post in which the help was given. By doing so you can add to the reputation(s) of those who helped.

Thanks Fdibbins. I hadn't marked it as solved as I left work around the time I was reading the response, and was still finishing my spreadsheet.

If you read my post, I specifically mention that I already had used the reputation function for this post.

You could also use:

=C3<>""

and not use the ISBLANK function.

Hope this helps.

Pete