You shouldn't use an IF function for this, the whole idea is to get a
formula that returns TRUE or FALSE
then you shouldn't use the whole range (Bob's example doesn't use E3:E5286
does it?), you select the whole range with E3 as the active cell then in the
formula is box put

=E3<=DATE(2005,1,4)

then select format and click OK twice

if that doesn't work your dates must be text


--
Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

(No private emails please)


"jazzydwit" wrote in message
ups.com...
Sure. I dumped hire date data from PeopleSoft Query to excel file. I
performed the steps to reformat the dates from yyyy/mm/dd to
mm/dd/yyyy. highlighted the entire column, clicked on format -
conditional formatting, selected for conditional 1, "formula is"; in
the second field, i entered the formula
=IF(E3:E5286<=DATE(2005,1,4),"yes","no"); clicked the format button,
selected the Pattern tab, chosed the yellow color and clicked OK,
twice. Still nothing. Thanks.