Can't format date

[Peter59]

Hi, I have the following problem. I have been using excel 2002 without any problems. I just did a clean instal of XP home (may be unrelated) and now have this issue after reinstalling Microsoft xp office pro. I have formatted the cell and selected date e.g. 14-Mar-01 and have location set to Australia. I type in a date e.g. 7/3 and get 3-Jul-12 when I want 7-Mar-12. I have also noticed that the sample box in the format cells remains blank. Doesn't matter what I do I can not change the date to display the way I want. If I type 14/3 and tab out of the cell it just displays 14/3.

When I put =today in cell I get 3/7/2012. If I now format the cell, date and select the 14-Mar-01 display type I am able to change the date display to read 7-Mar-12. Any ideas???

[martindwilson]

what are you regional settings in control panel?

[FrankMCook]

I tested it and it worked for me. Here is what I did. I right clicked on a cell and chose format cell. Then I selected date and chose the appropriate style at the top and set the location at the bottom. When I chose English (Australia) it saw the first number as the day of the week, and when I chose English (United States)it saw the first number as the month. I suspect that when you don't start with =today the cell is defaulting to a string rather than a date. If that isn't it, maybe as the other responder indicated you have a regional setting issue but I don't think so since I can get the format you want with a US setting.

[royUK]

Entering a date without a formula will not convert the date to a String

[Peter59]

Problem solved
So simple, it was the regional settings as you suggested Martin, notwithstanding that the locality was set to AU the region was default US.
Thanks everyone for the input.