Hi, sorry for long question, trying to fix at 3 in the morning..
hope I give the right items:

cell with general format, text date? in form of :yymmdd (is proceeded with a
colon so if format drops would not loose proceeding zero).
(yymmdd needed to quick view/enter dates, sorting / visual scan many
records..)

:yymmdd followed by word text...
:060122 text then written...

$H$7 has 5 for 5 days

=IF(LEFT(T9,1)=":",IF(AND(TODAY()DATE(MID(T9,2,2) +100,MID(T9,4,2),MID(T9,6,2)-$H$7)),"dd"),IF(BE9="T","dn",IF(BF9="T","up",IF(AK 9<"","ck",""))))

if use :060122 get correct dd response
if use :060130 get FALSE response, and rest of equation will not work.
if use : (no date) followed by text, get VALUE error


If I use the following equation:
=IF(LEFT(T9,1)<":",IF(AND(TODAY()DATE(MID(T9,2,2 )+100,MID(T9,4,2),MID(T9,6,2)-$H$7)),"dd"),IF(BE9="T","dn",IF(BF9="T","up",IF(AK 9<"","ck",""))))

Rest of formula works, TODAY/DATE does not.

My best guesse I need to find an Exclusion that lets skip IF(AND(TODAY... so
it will not even look at it, items not to familiar with.. like text search:
if 1st 7 characters not equal :###### (colon 7 numbers, maybe a space)

I see the front part of my equation, as being incorrect: =IF(LEFT(T9,1)<":",

Thanks in advance