You need to select paste special (from the Edit menu) and then select
formats. that way the format will change, but the data will remain the
same.


"s2m2" wrote in message
...
the cell's that change from 4/5 to 5-Apr all have date's in them, if I
copy
one of the current cells and paste it to the whole column, all the cells
have
the same date. I tried clearing the cell and than paste to the whole
column,
but still only would get a number 1 in the cell. I'm I missing what your
trying to tell me, this is my first time using office excel 2003

"Jeff Stevens" wrote:

Copy the cell that has the format you like and paste format it to the
cells
that you want to have the date format.



"s2m2" wrote in message
...
i'm making a spreedsheet in office excel, in column A I have a list of
dates.
I would type in 4/5 for an date and excel would automatic change the
date
to
4-Apr. I like this way, but when I got to cell 26, the change will not
happen. I type in 4/5 and I get just the number 1 in the cell, for the
rest
of the cells down, can someone help me.