# Excel 2003 Date format



## Rainman50 (Feb 6, 2004)

I have an existing Excel spreadsheet that contains the date format mm/dd/yyyy. I want to convert it to mm/dd/yy. Excel will not convert the current cells to the new format without re-entering the information. Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.


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## OBP (Mar 8, 2005)

My excel does


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## Zack Barresse (Jul 25, 2004)

Select the cell, press Ctrl + 1, Number (tab), select date and the date format you want. No changing of the cell values needed, only format.


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## Rainman50 (Feb 6, 2004)

I tried this, it does not change the current info. The information has to be re-entered. The cell is formatted, but the currnet date format is not edited.

I want to change xx/xx/xxxx to xx/xx/xx.


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## TonyJollans (Jun 24, 2004)

It sounds like your cells contain text and not 'proper' dates. If so ...

Put zero in an unused cell somewhere - and Copy it.
Select your dates and Paste Special > Add 
Now try and format them again.


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## Rainman50 (Feb 6, 2004)

Sorry, no go. Not sure what is going on with this doc. Thanks for your help!


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## OBP (Mar 8, 2005)

Can you post it on here?


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## Zack Barresse (Jul 25, 2004)

I would assume that it is not an actual (Excel recognized) date then.


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## Dreambringer (Jan 19, 2005)

You could try to copy the column, and paste special > Values, then formatt the cells.


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## Zack Barresse (Jul 25, 2004)

I'm not so sure about paste special values, but possibly Text to Columns, if it's a number issue.


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## OBP (Mar 8, 2005)

rainman, how about posting the sheet on here so we can look at it?


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