Cell requires double click to 'activate' date format change

[BLTibbs]

I have saved a file from quickbooks into excel. when I open the report, the
dates in my transaction date column are in text format. When I change the
column to date format, nothing happens until I double click in each cell. It
is as if I have to enter the cell and leave it to 'activate' my command to
change date formats.

this will not do of course, because I have thousands of rows. how do I get
them to all update when I change the format?

 

[T. Valko]

When a cell is formatted as one type and you change that format type by
going to the menu Format>Cells, the new format isn't applied until you edit
the cell. That's what you're doing when you double click the cell.

Try this...

Select the range of cells that hold the text dates.
Goto the menu Data>Text to Columns
Click Finish

This will usually reset the format to General and then Excel will recognize
the dates as true Excel dates then automatcally set the format to date.

 

[Shane Devenshire]

Hi,

Problem:
When numbers are enter as text they may not calculate within formulas as
they should. A few formulas will work fine despite the numbers being entered
as text. Numbers can be stored as text by 1. preformatting the cell to Text
and entering the number, 2. Typing an apostrophy in front of the number '123,
3. Because the data was downloaded from a soure inwhich it was stored as a
number, 4. Because you used the Text to Columns command and converted it to
text., and....

There is no sure indicator that a number is stored as text, although numbers
are usually right aligned and text left aligned, this may not be the case.
If you are using a later version of Excel, Error Checking green triangles may
appear at the top left corner of these cell, but this feature may be off or
the version of Excel may not support it. (2000 and earlier).

You can find out what data type the entries are by using the =ISTEXT(A1) or
=ISNUMBER(A1) functions. You can not tell by checking the Format. If a
number was entered in a cell preformatted as General or as a number, then it
will be a number, even if it's current format is Text. Likewise a number
entered in a cell preformatted as Text will be text even if it's current
format is Number, General, Date, Currency and the like.

Solution:
1. Change the format to one that is numeric and then reenter the numbers
(too slow and error prone.)
2. Select the cells and open the Error Checking options and choose Convert
to Numbers - but this won't work with dates.
3. Select an empty cell and copy it. Select the text number cell and choose
Edit, Paste Special, Add (or Subtract). This method is ~100 times faster
than #2.

Dates are numbers, and if they are stored as text, you will not get an Error
Checking triangle, so method #3 is obligatory if there is a substantial
number of dates to convert.

If this information is helpful, please click the Yes button.
Cheers,
Shane Devenshire

 

[Dave Peterson]

I'd go just a step further using Biff's instructions.

I'd do the same data|text to columns
then fixed width (but remove any lines)
And choose Date and the correct order (dmy, mdy, ...) just in case the order of
the text entry doesn't match the order of my windows short date.

It may not be necessary in all cases, but those extra 10 seconds would give me
peace of mind!