Trouble formatting date

[geordy67]

I'm having trouble formatting dates in a office basic edition.
I'm going about it how I normally would, eg.
R click, format cells, date then selecting the one required, but it has
no effect.
I found the spreadsheet locked in protection so I unlocked it but this
didn't help.

 

[Max]

One possibility is that the "date" isn't a date recognized by Excel. Could be
just text. Perhaps you could paste some examples here in reply (copy the
values direct from the formula bar)

 

[geordy67]

In past I would type in the date as 26/7/6 for eg.
Excel would then auto redisplay it as 26/07/2006. Aligned to right
It will work sometimes but mostly not.

 

[Max]

In past I would type in the date as 26/7/6 for eg.
Excel would then auto redisplay it as 26/07/2006. Aligned to right
It will work sometimes but mostly not.

I'd usually type in entire dates, unambiguously, eg: 26 Jul 2006
Of course if the cell(s) were somehow pre-formatted as Text (unknown to us,
of course), then Excel would not sense dates entered, irrespective how
unambiguously these were entered. If this happens, we'd need to re-format the
cells as general, then it'll be sensed.

 

[Max]

Clarification:

.. If this happens, we'd need to re-format the
cells as general, then it'll be sensed.

For new entry of dates, that is. For existing entries, we'd need to
re-confirm the entry (eg click inside the formula bar, press ENTER) before
it'd work. Merely reformatting the cells would not "fire" the sensing.

 

[geordy67]

Thanks for the help Max.
I've tried reformatting the cells as general but still it will mostl
display the date as typed and occasionally auto change to the ful
version eg. 27/7/2006
This is all in one column. I've tried formatting single cells an
columns as a whole with no success. It's like there's some sort o
background set up in there somewhere

 

[Max]

Thanks for the help Max.

You're welcome ..

I've tried reformatting the cells as general but still it will mostly
display the date as typed and occasionally auto change to the full
version eg. 27/7/2006
This is all in one column. I've tried formatting single cells and
columns as a whole with no success. It's like there's some sort of
background set up in there somewhere.

Can you upload a small zipped sample and post the *link* to it in reply here?
Then we could see exactly what's happening over there. I may not have the
solution for you, but I will reply further to you here. Either way, pl let me
know here whether you wish to pursue it further.

(Kindly note that no attachments should be posted *directly* to the
newsgroup)