Excel 2008 Saving Cell types in XLS format

[Justin]

I am in a spreadsheet and I set an entire column as a date type (right
click the top, format cells and I choose one of the date formats).
I save it as an xls - Excel 2003 file and when I go back in, that column
is set at a currency.
I have to save it as an xls and not an xlsX file because I am working
with people using other office suites - including *gasp* non Microsoft
programs.
How can I keep those cells from changing?
this happens in Windows and Mac.

 

[CyberTaz]

What is your specific update level of Office 2008? If not 12.2.1 it might
explain why the formatting doesn't hold. If you're fully updated...

Is this one particular file or does it happen in any/all files?

Have you tried launching Excel while holding the shift key?

What happens if you run Excel in a different User Account?

What exactly do you mean by "this happens in Windows and Mac"?

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

 

[Justin]

What is your specific update level of Office 2008? If not 12.2.1 it might
explain why the formatting doesn't hold. If you're fully updated...

Is this one particular file or does it happen in any/all files?

Have you tried launching Excel while holding the shift key?

What happens if you run Excel in a different User Account?

What exactly do you mean by "this happens in Windows and Mac"?

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

I am fully updated.
I have a Windows Vista machine at home and my laptop is a Macbook 15.
This phenomenon happens on both.

 

[CyberTaz]

Well, I'm afraid I don't know what to tell you.

I currently use Excel 2000, 2003 & 2007 on Windows XP/Vista as well as Excel
2004 & 2008 on Macs running Tiger/Leopard/Snow Leopard & have never
experienced this. Nor have I seen any reports of similar occurrences & I
haven't been able to force it to happen. There have been circumstances where
formatting may not be retained, but for it to arbitrarily change from Date
to Currency is something I can't explain... And for you to be experiencing
it with 2 completely different versions on 2 disparate operating systems is
even more baffling to me.

If there are no other replies I'd suggest you contact MS Support:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/contactus.mspx

Good Luck |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Justin]

Well, I'm afraid I don't know what to tell you.

I currently use Excel 2000, 2003 & 2007 on Windows XP/Vista as well as Excel
2004 & 2008 on Macs running Tiger/Leopard/Snow Leopard & have never
experienced this. Nor have I seen any reports of similar occurrences & I
haven't been able to force it to happen. There have been circumstances where
formatting may not be retained, but for it to arbitrarily change from Date
to Currency is something I can't explain... And for you to be experiencing
it with 2 completely different versions on 2 disparate operating systems is
even more baffling to me.

If there are no other replies I'd suggest you contact MS Support:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/contactus.mspx

Good Luck |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

Back home they call me the Baffler.
It hasn't happened for a while. Usually when I have a problem like this
I ignore it for a while and hope it goes away.