Check to see if you are perhaps in "Formula View" mode.
This would change "legal" XL dates to their serial values.

You can toggle it on and off with:
<Ctrl < `
That's the key containing the ~ (on my keyboard).

--

HTH,

RD
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Please keep all correspondence within the Group, so all may benefit!
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"Lucy N" wrote in message
...
Thanks for replyin.

The Format says number and date still.

The data is the date with slashes in between e.g. 06/07/2006

My colleague told me in needed to put a ' in front of everything to get it
to convert back but I was hoping there was something simpler.