Date format diplays incorrectly

[esiglin]

In Excel 07, I have entered a date in a cell as a date format, 9/1/08.
The Number format shows 'Date'. However, the cell displays 39692.
After reviewing other posts, I have tried a few solutions.
1) Changing the cell format to other options, then back to date.
2) Text-to-Columns, MDY.
These did not work. The cell still displays as 39692.
How do I change the display when the format already says date?

 

[Mattlynn via OfficeKB.com]

format cells, Number tab, Customer, enter mm/d/yy

 

[Fred Smith]

It sounds like the cell was formatted as text when the date was entered. If
this was the case then,

1) Just changing the format won't work, because you need to re-enter the
data as well. Try re-entering the date after formatting the cell to see if
this solves your problem.
2) Text-to-Columns is looking for something that looks like a date, like
9/1/08. When it finds 39692, it leaves this alone.

Regards,
Fred.