Use conditional formatting with a formula of

=AND(B2="",A2<TODAY())

where A2 is the closing date, B2 is the other field.

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HTH

Bob

(there's no email, no snail mail, but somewhere should be gmail in my addy)

"bollard" wrote in message
...
We have a spreadsheet with closing dates on it. We'd like the closing date
field's pattern to turn red when today after the closing date.

BUT, once a date is input into another field along the same row, we'd like
the first field to revert to its original colour.

Can anyone help please?