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

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

Select the column and Format as you wish then.................

Select your column and DataText to Columns then "Finish" should do the
trick.

If not..........DataText to ColumnsNextNextColumn Data FormatDateYMD
and Finish.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

On Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:12:01 -0700, leem
wrote:

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