Highlight cell based on whether a deadline was met

emmadgncs 

I selected the range to format: J7:J39,

J7 was the active cell within the selected range.

On the Home tab of the ribbon, I selected Conditional Formatting > New Rule...

I selected 'Format only cells that contain'.

I left the first drop down set to 'Cell Value'.

I selected 'greater than' from the second drop down.

In the box next to it, I entered the formula

=H7

Since there is no $ before the row number 7, Excel will automatically adjust it to =H8 for J8, to =H9 for J9, etc.

I clicked the Format... button.

I activated the Fill tab.

I selected red.

I clicked OK twice.

The overdue dates were now red.

Next, I repeated the series of steps described above, but I selected 'less than or equal to' from the second drop down, and I selected green as fill color.

The timely dates were now green, but the empty cells in J7:J39 too.

So I went through the same steps again, but this time with 'equal to' from the second drop down.

I entered  =""  in the box next to that drop down. and selected 'No color' in the Fill tab of the Format cells dialog.

This removed the green color from the empty cells.