Thanks for that - you hit the nail on the head!!!
I can now hand this over to my users with a clear conscience.

Pete

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

It sounds like you toggled the formula view (nice for debugging worksheet
formulas).

Tools|options|View tab|uncheck formulas.

On my USA keyboard, I can toggle this setting with ctrl-`
(control-backquote (the key to the left of the !/1 key))

Pete Whalley wrote:

Having created a column formatted as a date in a 2002 Excel spreadsheet the
column a figure which seems to be the number of days from a date in 1900. It
is recognised as a date in both the formula bar at the head of the
spreadsheet and when the cursor is moved over the field.
I have looked at all the options but cannot see anything that will change
this.
Can you please help
Pete

--

Dave Peterson