I have copied data from a Word table into and Excel worksheet. One column
contains dates from the mid-1800's to the 2000's. In Word they mostly look
like dd-mmm-yyyy. However, not all cells are populated completely and may
only contain data that looks like yyyy or [ca yyyy] or even [dd-mmm-]yyyy.

I need to keep have an excel format of dd-mmm-yyyy. However, when I put
this format on the column I get the following:

Original WORD Data: 7-Aug-1915
Excel Data (pre formatting): 7-Aug-15
Excel Data (post formatting): 7-Aug-1915

Original WORD Data: 1909
Excel Data (pre formatting): 1909
Excel Data (post formatting): 23-Mar-1905

How can I force Excel to use 4 digits in the year without loosing my data
that does not include the complete date, but only a partial date?

I thank you for your help.