in some other empty cell (without any formt) type this
=(SUBSTITUTE(A1,".","/"))+0
you may get the date number
format it as you like

do you get what you want;.


Dimmer wrote in message
...
Hello all,

I have a file that contains dates. I know that for example "12.10.2004"
means "December 10th, 2005", however Excel treats as "Oct. 12th 2004".
Nothing works: converting the format of the cells doen't help, the
TEXT(A1;"mm.dd.yyyy") doesn't do anything because it works on the serial
number instead

Any suggestions?

thanks a lot