I want my dates to stay as I have typed them - not for them to be changed
for the Excel default system.

Then you must format the cells to your date entry style.

Either before or after.

BTW............Excel does not control default date format.

That is controlled by your Windows Regional and Language settings.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 07:51:01 -0700, Margaret L. B. <Margaret L.
wrote:

I want my dates to stay as I have typed them - not for them to be changed
for the Excel default system.

2 options here.

One is to format the cells as text. At that point what you type is what you
get. The down side is that XL will not recognize the value as a date and as
such you can not perform any functions on it such as adding or subtracting
days.

The other is to format the cell to display the date as you desire it to
look. This would be my preference. The date can be typed however you want but
the display will always be the way you want. So you could type Jan 10 2010 or
1/10/2010 or just jan 10. Format | Cells... | Number tab and select Date and
the the appropriate format.
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"Margaret L. B." wrote:

I want my dates to stay as I have typed them - not for them to be changed
for the Excel default system.