It's a windows setting.

Go to the control panel (windows start button|control panel or settings, then
control panel).

Look for regional and language options
I'm using WinXP, so the captions may not be the same.

On the Regional Options tab, hit the Customize button.
Then go to the Date Tab

Make sure the short date format is in the same order as the way you want to
input dates.

Formatting the cell in excel won't change the order for entering the dates -- it
only displays the value entered in the way you want.





On 05/17/2010 10:14, Ghitorni wrote:
Thanks. But in Vista, that's the only format, dd-mm-yy and since I am
from India, I had chosen that locale. Does it mean that to get mm-dd-yy,
I have to change to some other country time zone?
"Dave Peterson" wrote in message
...
And you're trying to enter dates, right?

If you format that 8/5/2009 (converted to 08-05-2009) in an
unambiguous date format, like: mmmm dd, yyyy, I'm betting that you'll
see:

May 8, 2009

If that's true, then excel won't touch the first two entries since
their is no month that corresponds to 15 or 16.

Excel uses the windows short date format (modified in Windows Control
panel|regional settings) to parse your entry.

And I'm guessing that your short date format is in dmy order.

So you can either change that windows setting or you can change the
order you enter your dates.



On 05/17/2010 08:59, Ghitorni wrote:
Opened a new file, typed 8/15/2009 in A1, 8/16/2009 in A2, 8/5/2009 in
A3. Automatically, the last one gets converted to 08-05-2009, and
right-aligned also. Happens in all new files I create. Am I doing
something wrong because I wanted the same treatment for both earlier
values which appear left-aligned. Any clues? I am using excel 2007.
Thanks