title: SharePoint Designer 2010 - Determine if today's date is within x days of a start date column using conditional formatting
body: <p>I'm using SPD 2010 and Sharepoint Server 2010. </p>
  
  <p>Using conditional formatting I'm trying to format a list so that if today's date is greater than 3 days past the start date column a cell will turn red. </p>
  
  <p>Comparing two date columns directly (to see if today is after the start date) works well -</p>
  
  <p>ddwrt:DateTimeTick(ddwrt:GenDisplayName(string($thisNode/<strong>@StartDate</strong>)))  &lt; ddwrt:DateTimeTick(ddwrt:GenDisplayName(string(<strong>$Today</strong>)))</p>
  
  <p>But if I add a number it will work in SPD design view, but not on the actual SharePoint site.</p>
  
  <p>ddwrt:DateTimeTick(ddwrt:GenDisplayName(string($thisNode/<strong>@StartDate</strong>))) + <em><strong>3</strong></em> &lt; ddwrt:DateTimeTick(ddwrt:GenDisplayName(string(<strong>$Today</strong>)))</p>
  
  <p>I tried converting 3 to ticks -> 8,640,000/day and using that value, but that didn't work either (and doesn't work in SPD design view).</p>
  
  <p>I can get the formatting to work if I create a column with a calculated date of "StartDate+3" and then compare that directly, however, it doesn't work if the column is not visible and I would rather not create additional columns. </p>
  
  <p>Any ideas?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks for you help.</p>