Hi:

I have dates entered into a spreadsheet column in many different formats. I
want to be able to sort by date, but am not having any luck formatting some
dates, and therefore, sorting by date won't work.

For instance, I have entered dates as just years (e.g., 1978), ranges of
dates (e.g., 05/01/78-06/06/81), and single day dates.

Date format will not allow me to format for just year or a range (MS excel
2000). If I format as "Special" and use YYYY, it gives me some odd
single-day date (mm/dd/yy) instead of the 4 numeral year.

If I format the year as "general", it won't sort along with standard dates.
And I have no idea how to include the ranges of dates, so that they, too can
be sorted.

Any ideas?