cutting and pasting dates as general text

[analyzer1]

I work with large databases in xl where the dates are formatted as a day
(e.g. 3/21/08) and I want to reformat the date so that the format is a
general format for month (e.g. "3" or march). I know how to reformat (using
custom format 'm'). Issue is that xl still treats it like its 3/21/08 so
that when I group and sum, it groups on the date rather than the month.

I've cut and pasted to MSWord and then back to xl. That is fine for small #
of records.

Anyone know how to reformat in xl so that I can group and sum (pivot table)
on the 'month' without retyping the info in?

 

[Dave Peterson]

I'd keep the raw data as a date.

Then you can group by month in the pivottable.

After you create the pivottable
Rightclick on any entry in the row (or column) field
Choose Group and Show Detail
Then Months (or Years and Months???)