Thanks. That works - though I don't really understand why.
It is a shame that whatever formatting Excel applied when you run "Text to
Columns" doesn't persist in the worksheet. i.e. when I paste in new data from
Excel I have to run Text to Columns again. Not a big problem - I have created
a macro to do this and stuck a button in the menu bar.

Thanks verymuch for the v. quick reply!

"Max" wrote:

Perhaps this might work for you ..

Select the column of "dates"
Data Text to Columns
Click Next Next
In step 3, under "Column data format":
Check "Date" and select the format "DMY" from the droplist
Click Finish
--
Rgds
Max
xl 97
---
Singapore, GMT+8
xdemechanik
http://savefile.com/projects/236895
--
"Mark A" <Mark wrote in message
...
Hi

I have an MS Access report that I copy+paste into an excel worksheet.
Other
cells in the worksheet contain conditional formatting which lookup the
cells
with the access data (date: dd/mm/yyyy) and compares against a date in two
other cells and shades the cell appropriately.

The problem is not the formula - it works fine - but that the conditional
formtting does not work on the data exported from Access but only works if
I
manually type in a date. However, I cannot see ANY difference between an
manually tpyed in date and the Access exported date.

Help please!
Mark