I went into formatting for a cell and entered MM/YY.

When I enter i.e. "3/09" it displays 03/10 (meaning 3/9/2010). It appears
that if I enter any number between 1 & 31, it assumes it's the DAY. If I
enter 3/32, it works and displays 03/32 (meaning 3/01/2032).

So how do I format the number so that it knows the digits I enter are going
to be month then year. Is there a way to default it to always know the day
will be 01?

For dates data entry, it pays to be unambiguous
Enter it like eg: dd mmm yyyy (10 Jan 2010, 01 Oct 2010, etc)
where the Month is text and the full Year is used
Sustained Joy? hit the YES below
--
Max
Singapore
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"Charles" wrote:
I went into formatting for a cell and entered MM/YY.

When I enter i.e. "3/09" it displays 03/10 (meaning 3/9/2010). It appears
that if I enter any number between 1 & 31, it assumes it's the DAY. If I
enter 3/32, it works and displays 03/32 (meaning 3/01/2032).

So how do I format the number so that it knows the digits I enter are going
to be month then year. Is there a way to default it to always know the day
will be 01?

Enter as 3/2009 so Excel knows what you want. March 1, 2009

3/09 is too ambiguous so Excel will always assume you want 3/9(dm) of
current year which is March 9, 2010


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP


On Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:59:01 -0800, Charles
wrote:

I went into formatting for a cell and entered MM/YY.

When I enter i.e. "3/09" it displays 03/10 (meaning 3/9/2010). It appears
that if I enter any number between 1 & 31, it assumes it's the DAY. If I
enter 3/32, it works and displays 03/32 (meaning 3/01/2032).

So how do I format the number so that it knows the digits I enter are going
to be month then year. Is there a way to default it to always know the day
will be 01?