Dates shifting in Excel charts pasted into PPT

[sandrahoo]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Power PC

Ok, here's my quandry, hoping someone else may have seen this before, or may have an idea as to why this is happening.

I work on a Mac, running PPT 2004. Client works on a PC - not exactly sure what version of PPT.

I create graphs in Excel, paste them into PPT (all on the Mac) and share them with my PC clients. They double click on the chart in PPT to launch Excel and look at the data, magically all of the dates (X axis is month/year data) shift back in time 4 years. (What was once June 2008 data is now June 2004).

My PC-based buddies occasionally do the same thing in reverse, and when I double click on the chart to launch Excel and look at the data driving the charts, the dates all magically shift *forward* 4 years.

Which leaves both of us saying, "Huh?"

Please for give me if this question has been asked an answered before - I tried a few keyword searches, but honestly not sure that I'm using the best keywords. I tried everything I could think of short of "date wonkiness", and so far I'm not finding any answers.

Thanks to all for any ideas or help you may be able to share!

Sandra

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Sandra -

No mystery at all - 4 years ± 1 day to be exact PC's use the 1900 date
system, Mac's use the 1904 date system. You'll find documentation on it as
well as suggested solutions here;

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/180162

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Power PC

Ok, here's my quandry, hoping someone else may have seen this before, or may have an idea as to why this is happening.

I work on a Mac, running PPT 2004. Client works on a PC - not exactly sure what version of PPT.

I create graphs in Excel, paste them into PPT (all on the Mac) and share them with my PC

clients. They double click on the chart in PPT to launch Excel and look at the data, magically
all of the dates (X axis is month/year data) shift back in time 4 years. (What was once June
2008 data is now June 2004).

My PC-based buddies occasionally do the same thing in reverse, and when I double click on

the chart to launch Excel and look at the data driving the charts, the dates all magically
shift *forward* 4 years.

Which leaves both of us saying, "Huh?"

That's a logical enough response to something this weird. <g>

I recall seeing something about this a while back; it has to do with the way Windows vs Mac
handle dates. In Windows Excel, Tools, Options there's a "Use 1904 date system" option. Have
the Windows users put a check next to that to see if that fixes things.




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Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
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