I believe that the * prefix is something to do with the operating system
short and long dates. Do you know how the dates are set in your windows
operating system. Do you have the correct region, date format etc. Check in
control panel regional and language options.

Also, try custom format and set the format to mm/dd/yy and let me know what
happens.

Note: If you have the region dates set to say dd/mm/yy in the operating
system, when you enter dates into a cell that has been formatted as mm/dd/yy,
you have to enter them in the operating system format and they are then
displayed in the cell as per the way you formatted the cell. You can see this
by observing the formula bar and the cell and they can look different.

Regards,

OssieMac

"Darlene" wrote:

I need help with putting in a date in a cell. Iformat the cell and type in
03/17/07, when I click enter 10/22/86 is entered. I have tried all options in
the format, also when I click format cell and then date there is a * in
front. Can anyone help?
I am using Excel 2003 this problem just started.