Unable to change date format in Excel Solved/Closed

Question

Hello,
I have an excel worksheet with a date column, the format is set to dd-mmm-yyyy but the dates in the columns display as mm/dd/yyyy.  If I double click in each individual cell and then move out of that cell the format changes and the dates appear correct.  I have 24854 dates I need to change, I can't take time to double click in each cell.  Any suggestions?  Thanks

24 · Accepted Answer

This works:

 First change your format to the specific date that you want for your column of data.
 With the column selected, select "Copy"
 Open notepad (NOT WORD, it has to be notepad)
 Paste your data into notepad.
 In notepad, press CTRL + A (selects all cells) then press CTRL + C (copies data)
 Paste data back into Excel.
 It will say something about size not being the same, paste it anyways.

That works.

-24

venkat1926 · Answer

how did you format the cell 

ok suppose tje relevant date is 1 sept 2009
you enter (in my excel you have to enter as m/d/yy)
9/1/09
now go to format-number-custom
and type at the top window 
dd-mm-yyyy
and sees what happens

Justagal · Answer

Actually I find the problem:
Go to:
Registry
HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Control Panel
International
Change the sShortDate

Nazie · Answer

Hi Jack,
I can help you with this. Select the column/row that you need to reformat.
Go to the Data Tab
From the Data tab, Select Text to Columns
This will open a Wizard called "Covert Text to Columns"
You'll see 2 choices for your original data type: Delimited or Fixed Width
If your current date format has commas, tabs, dashes, etc., then click Delimited.
If your current date format has only spaces separating everything but no characters, then click Fixed.
Click NEXT once you selected your origiinal data type
The next screen, you can skip by clicking NEXT again
Now you'll see a screen that lets you slect the data format that you want
Select the DATE button
Then, from the drop down, select the new date format you want to use.
Click Finish
This should do the trick. I hope this helps!!

Mak · Answer

the reason for this is as mentioned above - depending on the users settings - i.e. id it's US for example, whateer the user types in the cell will default to the mm/dd/yy (that's according to the default US format)

By clicking into the cell then clicking out, the cell recognises your settings - hence whay it reverts to the UK format

hope that makes sense

Unable to change date format in Excel

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