You could try Data/ Text to Columns, specifying YMD as the date format at
the last stage of the wizard.
Another option is to try copying a blank cell then select your "dates" and
try Edit/ Paste Special/ Add.
--
David Biddulph

"leem" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I export data from our financial system into excel (data format) and the
date is in 2009/10/30 format, I want it to change the format to as
dd-mmm-yy.
I've tried to format the cell as "date" and I also used "custom". It does
not automatically change the date format to the one I want. However, when
I
F2 a cell and press enter, the format then changes to the one I want. Is
there any way to have the dates change to the format I want without having
to
F2 each individual cell (data currently consists of about 500 rows).
Thanks