novicee Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 17 Oct 11 Excel 2007: Editing a date causes a format change When I edit a date (e.g. changing the month) the format of the cell changes from "date" to "general" and the edited date has a ^ symbol before it in the formula bar indicating it has become text. This stops me from using it in formulas (e.g. I cannot subtract it from another date to find the interval between them). I have searched Word 2007 help without being able to find a way to stop this format change. Any help would be welcome. - Novice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geej Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 17 Oct 11 Excel 2007: Editing a date causes a format change When I edit a date (e.g. changing the month) the format of the cell changes from "date" to "general" and the edited date has a ^ symbol before it in the formula bar indicating it has become text. This stops me from using it in formulas (e.g. I cannot subtract it from another date to find the interval between them). I have searched Word 2007 help without being able to find a way to stop this format change. Any help would be welcome. - NoviceNeed to ensure the cell is Date type. (Right-click the cell->Format cells... --->In the "Number" tab, under Category: Date should be selected -> Followed by your choosen Type: (eg. 14-Mar-01) When you edit the date cell manually, ensure you stick to the required format to prevent from changing to text/ other type.BTW, What has Word 2007 help got to do with Excel? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
novicee Posted October 18, 2011 Author Share Posted October 18, 2011 18 Oct 11 Excel 2007: Editing a date causes a format changeGeej,Thanks for the suggestion but I had already done what you advise. This is what I did: 1. format cells > number > date > 14.03.01 2. In the cell the date displays as 30.10.95 and in the formula bar as 1995/10/30. No problems at this stage and I can subtract the date from another date. 3. In the formula bar, I then deleted the 0 in 30 and replaced it with 1. When I hit enter, the date as displayed in the cell changed from 30.10.95 to 1995/10/31. In the formula bar, the date displayed changed from 1995/10/30 to ^1995/10/31. The ^ indicating it had become text. When I edit a number it does not change to text so I do not understand why a date should be any different. I did not have this problem with dates in previous versions of Excel. BTW, I meant, of course, "Excel 2007 help" in my last post. - Novice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geej Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 I couldn't get the below date format in Excel 2007 1. format cells > number > date > 14.03.01 2. In the cell the date displays as 30.10.95 and in the formula bar as 1995/10/30. No problems at this stage and I can subtract the date from another date.Nevertheless, try using other date format. Some guide like this or this might help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
novicee Posted October 18, 2011 Author Share Posted October 18, 2011 (edited) 19 Oct 11 Excel 2007: Editing a date causes a format change - SolutionGeej, Available date formats The available date formats depend on the location the user specifies on the page: format cells > number > date. I could choose 14.03.01 because I had my location as English (New Zealand). This format is not offered if the location is English (United States). Extension of the problem I changed my location to English (United States), chose different date formats and tried editing but got the same result as before. I also noticed that I don't even have to edit the date for the problem to occur. Just double clicking the cell is enough to change the date to text. Solution of the problem I had customized my Win 7 date format using: control panel > region and language > formats > additional settings > date I went to the same page and chose reset and that has fixed the problem in Excel 2007. Conclusion Customizing the date format in Win 7 via the control panel page above, feeds through into Excel 2007 and can cause problems with dates in worksheets. - Novice Edited October 18, 2011 by novicee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geej Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Thanks for sharing your solution to your own problem with us. Glad to hear you solved the problem yourself.Your solution may help someone who face similar situation.Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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