The erroneous date appears in the formula bar. So, in the 1909 example, I
would see 3/23/1905 in the formula bar.

I could live with this information going into Excel as text rather than
dates, but I don't seem

"Sean Timmons" wrote:

If you click on the cell that shows 1909, what shows in the formula bar?

"KathyNeedsHelp" wrote:

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.