Changing spreadsheet font style with an if function

Question

I have a spreadsheet, and in one cell, it has a date(manually entered, one for each day of the month) and in another cell it has an auto-updating date that tells me the date today, I need for the first cell to check and see if its contents(the date) matches the contents of the second cell(current date) and if it does, I want it to change 3 specific cells to something else(Preferably bolded, but it can be anything from color changes to italics)

Any help is appreciated thanks!

Answer 1

Conditional formatting is the correct approach.  However, you are still testing a condition when you change the formatting IF the value in one cell equals the value in another cell.  So, you really are using an 'If' statement, in a manner of speaking.

Assume the manually entered dates are in column A and the current date is in cell B1.  Then the conditional format formula in A1, for example, would be  "=B1".  Change the font style to bold, red, or whatever.

Answer 2

IMHO, that should be done with "conditional formatting" in one of your excel menus, and not with an "if" function.