"Bob Phillips" wrote:

See John Walkenbach's page on dates before 1900

http://j-walk.com/ss/excel/files/xdate.htm

Thanks both. I've installed that add-in, Bob. But although it solves
the problem of working with dates before 1900, it doesn't actually
address the specific problem I raised. With or without the add-in,
Excel will not display/sort/calculate 'Sep 1883' as a *date*. I need
to get it into the form 1-Sep-1883 or something similar.

Maybe I'll have to do it in text editor with a global replace,
tediously changing months to numbers?

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK