On Mon, 20 Feb 2006 13:40:17 +0800, budgie wrote:

On Sun, 19 Feb 2006 21:02:32 -0500, Ron Rosenfeld
wrote:

On Mon, 20 Feb 2006 09:42:22 +0800, budgie wrote:

Using Win98SE, I have regional settingsto show date as day-month-year style (as
is normal here). However, Excel 97 refuses to adopt this style, and I can't see
any way to get the required format - certainly nothing in Tools-Options or
Tools-Customise addresses this.

Can anyone advise me how to get this to behave?

"refuses to adopt this style" could mean a number of different things.

In Excel-speak, format has to do with how a cell's contents is displayed.

Style includes a number of formatting options, but I doubt you'd want to format
a number as a date.

Some people use this terminology when they have problems entering data.


To format the cell to your liking, at the top of the main menu bar you should
see a selection labeled "Format".

If you click on that you should see an option labeled "Cells"

Check Number on the tabs at the top of the dialog box that opens; then select
date and see if your desired format is present.

It isn't - that's the point. While I have selected day-month-year in regional
settings, all the format *types* presented in the Format-Cell-Number-Date are
month-date(-year) types. Excel does not offer the required type of date
formatting.

If you mean something else by your statement, you'll need to be more specific.

I really thought the above was sufficiently clear and specific.

In that case, select the Custom Option.

You will see a box labeled Type: into which you may enter a custom format.

Since you also gave no examples of exactly how you want your date to appear,
other than the order of the entries, here are some possibilities. If you
search Help for Number Format Codes you will see others:

dd-mm-yy

dd/mm/yyyy

dd mmmm yyyy

dd mmm yyyy

dddd dd mmm yyyy

--------------------------------
(from HELP for XL2002)

To display Use this code
Months as 1–12 m
Months as 01–12 mm
Months as Jan–Dec mmm
Months as January–December mmmm
Months as the first letter of the month mmmmm

Days as 1–31 d
Days as 01–31 dd
Days as Sun–Sat ddd
Days as Sunday–Saturday dddd

Years as 00–99 yy
Years as 1900–9999 yyyy

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--ron