Applying format to cells
 

Hi,

I've got a whole list of dates which I've used an &"/".... formula to
create, but having pasted them as values, they've all aligned themselves left
& are not picking up as dates in subsequent formulas. I've set the format of
the cells to dd/mm/yyyy, but until I activate each cell (F2), it doesn't
convert.
Is there a way of sorting this out without having to press F2 for every cell?

Thanks
merry_fay

Applying format to cells
 

"merry_fay" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I've got a whole list of dates which I've used an &"/".... formula to
create, but having pasted them as values, they've all aligned themselves
left
& are not picking up as dates in subsequent formulas. I've set the format
of
the cells to dd/mm/yyyy, but until I activate each cell (F2), it doesn't
convert.
Is there a way of sorting this out without having to press F2 for every
cell?

Thanks
merry_fay

Using &"/" in your formulas means you have created text strings, not dates.
Instead you should create dates directly, using the DATE worksheet function
(which is very easy).

Applying format to cells
 

If your date entries matched your windows setting for the same mdy order, you
may be able to use this:

Select the range to fix
edit|Replace
what: / (slash)
with: /
replace all

Alternatively, you could select a single column at a time and do
data|text to columns (xl2003 menu system)
choose Fixed width
erase any lines that excel guessed
choose date and the correct order of your existing data
and finish up the wizard

Either way, I'd format the cells in an unambiguous format (mmmm dd, yyyy) just
to verify that my dates are correct and they actually represent what I want.

merry_fay wrote:

Hi,

I've got a whole list of dates which I've used an &"/".... formula to
create, but having pasted them as values, they've all aligned themselves left
& are not picking up as dates in subsequent formulas. I've set the format of
the cells to dd/mm/yyyy, but until I activate each cell (F2), it doesn't
convert.
Is there a way of sorting this out without having to press F2 for every cell?

Thanks
merry_fay

--

Dave Peterson