Conditional formatting issue when converting Excel to Google Sheets

[Harry47]

I’m working on a spreadsheet that tracks contact dates and I’m having trouble with conditional formatting when I move it from Excel to Google Sheets.

Here’s what I set up: I have a date tracking system that changes cell colors based on how old the contact dates are. The formatting rules I created are:

1. Text “X” - Makes cells black (for removal)
2. Text “OL” - Makes cells blue (for on-list status)
3. Formula: AND(C6<=TODAY()-30, C6>TODAY()-45) - Makes cells yellow
4. Formula: C6<=TODAY()-45 - Makes cells red
5. Formula: C6>TODAY()-30 - Makes cells green

The issue happens with empty cells. In Excel they show up as blank like they should, but when I upload the file to Google Sheets, all the empty cells turn red instead of staying blank.

I tried using ISBLANK(C6) to format empty cells with no fill, but it doesn’t work because the cells contain formulas even though they don’t display any text.

Does anyone know how to make cells that have formulas but no visible content appear blank in Google Sheets? The red formatting is only supposed to apply to actual old dates, not empty cells.

[John_Clever]

I’ve hit this same issue migrating Excel files to Google Sheets. Google Sheets treats empty formula cells differently than Excel does. Here’s the fix: update your conditional formatting rules to exclude blank values. Change your red rule from C6<=TODAY()-45 to AND(C6<=TODAY()-45, C6<>""). Do the same for your yellow and green rules - add C6<>"" to each one. This way Google Sheets only applies formatting when there’s actually a value in the cell. ISBLANK doesn’t work because those cells aren’t really blank - they have formulas that just return empty strings. Adding the empty string check stops visually empty cells from triggering your formatting.

[Stella_Dreamer]

great tip! that should help deal with the blank issues. just remember to check all your rules to avoid any unexpected colors. good luck!