represent date in text

Hi,
I am trying to represent date in
Jan-11
Feb-11
and so on...(I am manually typing this dates)

only limitation is Actually it should be same not 1/1/11...
means on formula bar it should not display 1/1/11 or 1-Jan-11

As I am going to compare it with another cell(where this cell text is genrated using "=TEXT(I4,"mmm")").
And most imp I dnt want to put another cell to convert it in text like did it above.

Is it possible?
I dnt know weather i explained my requirement properly or not...!

Thanks in advance

In simple words.

I want to compare two columns.
one is in mmm-yy(it is not date)
another one is date. I tried to convert it in mmm-yy. but comparison fail

In comparison i am using sumif function.

am i clear now?

For the textual date entry, precede with ' (single quotation mark): 'Jan-11

Thanks jhren

You're quite welcomme!!!