Imported dates which won't format

[clobug1]

I have start and end dates which are imported from a specialist programme, which look exactly like a normal English date (DD/MM/YYYY) but are not importing as a date format and therefore cannot always be used in formulae. I have tried re-formatting the cells and also copying and paste special the values but neither works. I think I am going to have to create an extra column but don't know how to bring in the value from the date cells in a way that I can format them and use them for calculations.

[GuruWannaB]

To make the text formatted date be coerced to a date format...grab the column of dates and select DATA->Text to Columns

[sstreet]

To GuruWannaB....EXCELLENT! That worked! SOLVED.