Formatting Columns for dates and/or text

[DaniLucas]

I have a column that I need to be formatted for either dates or text and I am not sure of the proper formatting.

Example:

A

6/20/2016

Partial

6/21/2016

6/18/2016

6/6/2016

NotDone

8/7/2016

NotApplicable

7/7/2016

Right now, it auto formats to 'General' but I need to paste this information into a MS Access table (data type in Access as 'Short Text') and with general formatting it only pastes the dates, not the text.

[dflak]

I don't think that formatting is going to help. What might be happening is on the Access side. It is seeing dates come in first and decides that's what you want. Are you getting some error records where the string data should go?

Try this as an experiment in a helper column use =IF(ISNUMBER(A2),TEXT("mm/dd/yyyy"),A2) and copy this information in. What this formula does is convert the dates to strings that look like the dates.