"pamjmac27" wrote in message
...
When I enter the date and it is longer than the column I'm working in, it
usually just shows up flowing over the next cell, which is blank.
However,
once in awhile instead of showing the date, I get #### instead - even
though
the next cell is blank. WHY? I don't want to change the width of the
date
cell as this will throw off the rest of the spreadsheet..

The adjacent cell ISN'T blank, then. It may appear blank, but it isn't. It
may contain a space. It may be formatted with white font on white
background. It may contain a value of zero and zero values are set not to be
displayed. It may contain a null text string "". It may contain a formula
returning any of these. There are probably other possibilities also. What's
certain is that it isn't blank!

Try copying one of the 'adjacent' cells in a row where data from the cell to
the left appears over it as you expect (which is therefore definitely blank)
and pasting this onto the cell that you think is blank. You will see that it
makes a difference.