When you formatted the column, the dates should have changed if they were in
numeric format. It sounds like you're starting with dates in text format (it
can only format numbers as dates, not text). So...

go off to the right side of your worksheet to any blank cell outside your
data range and copy it to your clipboard; now highlight all your dates and go
to Edit Paste Special Add; hit Escape and you should see your dates are
now in numeric format and ready for Excel to apply date formatting to them.

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"Zoey" wrote:

I have a column of dates that I want to switch to another date format. So far
I know how to do that only by formatting the column, then double-clicking on
a single cell, clicking on the column header, and repeating this action with
each subsequent cell... There has to be a better way, no?