Stopping dates changing to random numbers

[thingstodo123]

xx.PNG

Hi all,



It's been a while, but I have another excel problem and would greatly appreciate some help.

I have copied over a series of dates into an excel spreadsheet. They all have hyperlinks, however when i remove them they change to the random numbers as you can see with the bottom six cells.

Any ideas of why and how I can stop that happening? (The top two were entered manually and for some reason are OK.)

Many thanks as always,

Michael

[DBY]

Hello Michael

The bottom six are not random numbers but dates formatted as their underlying numerical value. Have you tried formatting those cells to the date format: dd/mm/yy, as in the top cells?

DBY

[thingstodo123]

Hi DBY,

It is set as that I think?

Please excuse the ignorance!

xxx.PNG

[thingstodo123]

Just to clarify the 'xxx' is not nefarious!

Just wanted it to pop up at the end of my pictures.

[DBY]

Hi
If those cells are numeric and you format them as shown they should be showing as the date format selected. I can only think that when you're copying across that the source data is partly formatted as text. Can you upload a sample file showing this behaviour?

[thingstodo123]

Hi DBY,

I seem to have lost the part I am talking about on the spreadsheet! Let me try and get a version to you soon, may be Monday though.

Quite honestly I can copy them across and enter manually but en masse that would be time consuming and trying to learn why is important.

Michael