Excel offers some very helpful features to work with dates. One of these is the dynamic calendar grid. We can have a start date that is the start of the month and create a dynamic calendar grid. The WEEKDAY and CHOOSE functions with conditional formatting help us to create this. In this tutorial, we will learn how to create a dynamic calendar grid in Excel.
Figure 1. Example of How to Use the Dynamic Calendar Grid in Excel
Generic Formula
=start-CHOOSE(WEEKDAY(start),0,1,2,3,4,5,6)
Process
Here, we are using the CHOOSE and WEEKDAY functions. This formula calculates the Sunday before the first day of the month. It does so by using the CHOOSE function. It rolls back to the right number of days to the previous Sunday. CHOOSE allows random values for each day of the week. This feature rolls back zero days if the first day of the month is a Sunday. It adjusts the roll back for the rest of the days.
After the first day is extracted, the other formulas in the grid adds one to the previous date. It checks the cell on the left for a value. If it does not find a value, it pulls a value from the rightmost column in the row above. We assign this value as a mixed reference. We do this to ensure the column is locked as the formula is copied throughout the grid. The same formula is used in all other cells.
Setting up Data
The following example contains a start date. It is in cell J5. From this value, we will create a dynamic calendar grid in column A to G.
To do that, we need to:
- Go to the View tab on the ribbon. Uncheck Gridlines.
- Next, we need to select cells A3 to G9. Go to the Home tab on the ribbon. Click on Borders>All borders.
- Click on cell A2. Assign the formula =J6.
- Right click on A2. Select Format Cells>Numbers>Custom. On the Type box type mmmm yyyy. Click Ok.
- Select A2 to G2. From the Home tab select Merge and Center.
- Enter the weekday abbreviations in cells A3 to G3.
- Go to cell A4. Apply the formula
=J6-CHOOSE(WEEKDAY(J6),0,1,2,3,4,5,6) - Select cells A4 to G8. Right click and select Format Cells>Numbers>Custom. On the Type box type d. Click Ok.
- Go to cell B4. Apply the formula
=IF(A4<>"",A4,$J6)+1. Drag it to the remaining cells in the calendar grid. - Select cells A4 to G8. From the home tab in the ribbon, go to Conditional Formatting. Next, we need to click on New Rule.
Figure 2. Example of how to Apply Conditional Formatting
- Select Use a formula to determine which cells to format.
- Click the Format values where this formula is true box. On the formula box, assign the formula
=MONTH(A4)<>MONTH(J4).
Figure 3. Applying the Formula to the Conditional Format
- Click the Format tab near the preview box.
- Next, we need to go to Fill>Background Color and select the color we want to highlight in.
Figure 4. Managing the Display Options
- Click OK twice.
- To format the current date follow steps 10 to 14. Change the formula to
=A4=TODAY().
Figure 5. Applying the format to Current Date
Notes
We can create a calendar that updates automatically based on the current date. To do that we need to use the formula =EOMONTH(TODAY(),-1)+1 in J6. This formula fetches the current date with the TODAY function. Later, it gets the first day of the running month using EOMONTH. By replacing TODAY() with any other date, we can build a calendar in another month.
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