"ShaneDevenshire" wrote in
message ...
I you trying to convert the dates back to text? You can format the
date
field to a custom number format like 0-0000. Then if you want to
convert
these to text you can select them and choose Data, Text to Columns,
Next,
Next, and select the Text option and click Finish.


Hi Shane,

The problem is that excel has effectively corrupted the underlying
value of the data, rather then just formatting it wrongly.

Using the example I did in my OP, the original text was "3-8000" (text
string, six chars long).

Excel imports that as a date (1 Mar 8000) which has an underlying
value of 2228041 (numeric value).

There is no simple formatting that will get from that numeric value
back to the text string (as far as I know!)


It this helps, please click the Yes button.


Not sure what this means. The ms public groups are text only NNTP
groups, so there is no concept of clicking a button?

Thanks,

--

Alan.

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