Highlighting the most recent date in a row

Question

hi all
I have a series of 5 dates in a row. I would like to be able to highlight only the cell containing the most recent date (in respect to the current date) in each row.
There will be instances when there is no date in some of the cells.
Thanks for the help in the past, this and the other forums are awesome.

Answer 1

Jason is correct. It requires two tables.
I had started experimenting with this last night, but an outage at my ISP prevented posting at that time.
Conditional formatting of a cell depends on comparing the value in that cell with a fixed value contained in the rule; the rule itself cannot reference a different cell to pick up the comparison value. So you need to calculate a value in a cell on a second table, apply conditional formatting to that cell, and place it directly behind the cell containing the date to be highlighted.
Example:
Dates are in cells B7 to F7 of Table 1
Cell H1 is used to select the maximum date.
Table 2 is a single row table with no row or column header cells, and only 5 columns.
Select Table 1, open the Inspector, and use the Table inspector to set Cell Background to “None”
In Cell H1 enter: =MAX(B7:F7)
Go Insert > Table > Plain
Resize the new table (Table 2) to 1 row x 5 columns.
In A1 of Table 2, enter: =DATEDIF(Table 1::B7,Table 1::$H7,"D")
Drag the handle at the lower right of the cell to copy the formula into all five cells.
Click on A1.
Open the Inspector and choose the Cell Format inspector.
Check the Conditional Format checkbox, then click Show rules...
Set the rule to “Equal to... 0”
Choose a Fill colour to serve as your highlight colour.
Click on the next cell and repeat.
When you have applied the rule to all five cells, close the Conditional Format dialogue.
Choose all five cells. Open the Text inspector.
Click on the colour well.
Leave the text colour set at Black, but move the Opacity slider to 0%.
Close the Inspector and the Colors dialogue.
Select Table 2 and drag it into position covering the five cells with dates on Table 1. Use the Arrow keys to nudge it into exact alignment.
Go Arrange > Send Backward to move Table 2 behind Table 1. Repeat until you can see the dates on Table 1.
Regards,
Barry