YEAR

[drgooply]

I have a Column headed "Year"; I want to create a spreadsheet in which
the first column is "Year". As I go down the column, it will read
2000; 2001; 2002; etc. How do I enter the year "2000" (or any year)
without Excel converting my numbers into something altogether
different?
I can see how to do it if I want to say 12/31/2000, but in this case,
all I need to say is the year.
Thank you.

 

[Geoff Lilley]

I have a Column headed "Year"; I want to create a spreadsheet in which
the first column is "Year". As I go down the column, it will read
2000; 2001; 2002; etc. How do I enter the year "2000" (or any year)
without Excel converting my numbers into something altogether
different?
I can see how to do it if I want to say 12/31/2000, but in this case,
all I need to say is the year.
Thank you.

You could do a couple of things. Probably the easiest one would be to
select Column A, then go to Format->Cells, and choose "Custom." In
"Custom," type in "yyyy." Then, in each cell, type in a data, like
12/31/2000.

If you just want the number "2000," or the number "2005," then, again,
make sure to select the column, and make sure the format is "General."
Just typing in the number "2000" worked for me.

 

[Barry Wainwright [MVP]]

You could do a couple of things. Probably the easiest one would be to
select Column A, then go to Format->Cells, and choose "Custom." In
"Custom," type in "yyyy." Then, in each cell, type in a data, like
12/31/2000.

If you just want the number "2000," or the number "2005," then, again,
make sure to select the column, and make sure the format is "General."
Just typing in the number "2000" worked for me.

Or, if you want the '2000' as text, just enter it with a single quote mark
in front - '2000

The ' will not show in the cell, but will tell Excell to treat the 'number'
as 'text'.

 

[drgooply]

Thanks, all. Why couldn't the Help menu be as helpful as you all are.

 

[CyberTaz]

Unfortunately Help is written (usually) by the same geeks who write the code
- or by others who have been given a brief overview of the feature but don't
necessarily understand how it works or what it might further relate to
... At least that's how it seems much of the time.

Seriously, though, most of the info is there... It just isn't where you may
'expect' it to be & it's also a near impossible task to correlate & document
every conceivable permutation in a Help file. IOW, there's no substitute for
experience & communication with others who speak the same language

Just a footnote to the original issue - the real root of the problem is that
Excel [understandably] isn't written to recognize entries of 1-4 digits as
Dates. Formatting of the cell tells the program what to expect & if the
entry doesn't conform Excel still tries to interpret it based on what the
formatting dictates. In this case it was looking at the 4-digit year (which
*isn't* a Date) and trying to express the value as a date. The *Date Value*
of 2001 gets interpreted as "2001 days from 1/1/1904" which results in a
display of 6/24/09... Even though the cell stores 2001.

You could also have selected the cells, then used Edit>Clear>Formats to get
them to display the numbers entered.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac