Date formatting

[mkingsley]

I am doing a spreadsheet on products with expiration dates. When I
enter 7/08, indicating that the product will expire in July 2008, the
data in the cell comes up Jul-04. All I want is the month and year. I
have tried several format cell commands, as they relate to date. But
the only way I have found to get it in the cell correctly is to type
7/1/08. It then comes up Jul-08. Isn't there a way to just type month
and year??

 

[Norman Harker]

Hi mkingsley!

Afraid not! You've noticed that 7/04 is interpreted as 4th July of the
current year (US Settings). There's no option that allows you to
change this date input interpretation.

Remember that Excel uses date serial numbers for dates. Each number
represents a day. July-2004 is ambiguous; which of the 31 days is
Excel to assume?

But you can enter (e.g.) 7/1/04 and format mmm-yy or some other
suitable format.

--
Regards
Norman Harker MVP (Excel)
Sydney, Australia
(e-mail address removed)
Excel and Word Function Lists (Classifications, Syntax and Arguments)
available free to good homes.

 

[Peo Sjoblom]

Enter it as 07/2008 or use a temporary autocorrect

or you could use Chip Pearson's date entry macro and enter it as
7108

and format cells as mmm-yyyy

http://www.cpearson.com/excel/DateTimeEntry.htm

 

[Norman Harker]

Hi Peo!

Doh!! Forgot the four digit year interpretation.

--
Regards
Norman Harker MVP (Excel)
Sydney, Australia
(e-mail address removed)
Excel and Word Function Lists (Classifications, Syntax and Arguments)
available free to good homes.