Fixing the backwards default formatting of a date

[sp1974]

I entered a date into Excel (2001) in the proper month-day format and
not only did Excel decide on its own to reformat this cell it created
a string using the incorrect order for the date and month. In my
example after I typed "5/16" Excel decided to change it to "16-Mar".
I did not want it formatted, and I certainly didn't want it formatted
in that obnoxious manner. I went into Format-->Cells and the date
format option list didn't seem to have anything for just
<month>-<day>. The only available option was to include the year as
well. Aside from tricking Excel to leave my text alone, how do I get
this date field formatted properly?

Thanks

 

[Frank Kabel]

Hi
apply a custom format like
MM/DD
for these cells prior to entering data

 

[Brandt]

You could also just format the cell to "text" and it would leave it alone. This only works if you are not going to refer to the date in any other fomulas

Brandt