Are you now using Excel 2007? You didn't explain what you that caue the date
to change to the number.

Microsoft stores that date as an interger represent number of days since Jan
1, 1900. Excel display the number as a date or number depending on the
format of the cells. Hours are represented as a fraction of the day where 8
hours = 8/24hr = 0.33333

"FranLew" wrote:

I have bee using excel 2003 to produce a line chart from two columns of
data--'date' and 'value'. When I move the cursor to a point on the line the
'date' and 'value' from the two columns is shown--i.e '8/20' and '1500' .Now
the date value point is a five digit number which -I think-is equivalent to
that date.
How can I regain the m/d to appear?