date is not displaying correctly

I have a spreadsheet that I am currently having problems with the date not
displaying correctly. I don't know what I did but when I first started the
spreadsheet it was fine. If I type in a date such as 4/10/2004 is displays
as 38087. If I want the date to display I have to type in '4/10/2004 for it
to display in the cell. I need to be able to change back all of the dates
that were converted to this numbering. If I go into format cells and click
on date and choose the date display nothing happens as well as if I click on
the general tab. I don't know what I did but, can anyone please help me?

Thanks,
Deb

Probably the cells were formatted as text.

Just changing the format doesn't work.

Try this:

In a new, unused cell, enter a date,
4/10/2004
If the date displays correctly. *and* is right justified, *and* when you
check the format, it shows as a "date". then you know that you have a "good"
cell.

Right click in this cell, and choose "Clear Contents",
Then right click *again* and choose "Copy".

NOW, select all your "bad" cells.
Right click in this selection and choose "Paste Special".
Click on "Add",
Then <OK>.

You should now have all your date cells as *true* date cells.
--
HTH,

RD
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Please keep all correspondence within the Group, so all may benefit!
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"Deb" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I have a spreadsheet that I am currently having problems with the date not
> displaying correctly. I don't know what I did but when I first started
the
> spreadsheet it was fine. If I type in a date such as 4/10/2004 is
displays
> as 38087. If I want the date to display I have to type in '4/10/2004 for
it
> to display in the cell. I need to be able to change back all of the dates
> that were converted to this numbering. If I go into format cells and
click
> on date and choose the date display nothing happens as well as if I click
on
> the general tab. I don't know what I did but, can anyone please help me?
>
> Thanks,
> Deb

Any chance you're looking at formulas?

Do you see the date (nicely formatted) in the formulabar?

If yes, Tools|Options|View tab|Uncheck Formulas.



Deb wrote:
>
> I have a spreadsheet that I am currently having problems with the date not
> displaying correctly. I don't know what I did but when I first started the
> spreadsheet it was fine. If I type in a date such as 4/10/2004 is displays
> as 38087. If I want the date to display I have to type in '4/10/2004 for it
> to display in the cell. I need to be able to change back all of the dates
> that were converted to this numbering. If I go into format cells and click
> on date and choose the date display nothing happens as well as if I click on
> the general tab. I don't know what I did but, can anyone please help me?
>
> Thanks,
> Deb

--

Dave Peterson

With your problem cell selected, Hold down Ctrl key and type `
This is a little hard to see, but it is the key to the left of 1 and right under the Esc key on a Qwerty keyboard.
Then you can go to the format cell dialog box and pick the date format you prefer.
That problem can be very frustrating because the fix is not intuitive and the advice is hard to locate. The gibberish that was displayed has something to do with the number of days since Jan. 1, 1900 or something like that.
Den