difficulty changing cell format

S

samsmimi

I have pulled information from another application into an Excel spreadsheet.
The date column is in a format that I don't like & I would like to change it,
but I am having difficulty doing it. I have highlighted the column, and when
that didn't work, a single cell, and chosen a date format. The numbers in the
column don't even budge.
 
J

Jane

My guess would be that the data imported as text instead of a number, and the
date formats only work on numbers. In a separate column, try turning the
information back into numbers by using =VALUE(A1) or =A1*1, then formatting
the way you want. You can then copy and paste special...values over the
orignal data and delete the formula column.
 
S

samsmimi

Thanks so much for your help!

Jane said:
My guess would be that the data imported as text instead of a number, and the
date formats only work on numbers. In a separate column, try turning the
information back into numbers by using =VALUE(A1) or =A1*1, then formatting
the way you want. You can then copy and paste special...values over the
orignal data and delete the formula column.
 
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