The asterisk doesn't appear in the cell. It's in the Format|Cells dialog.

If you widen the column, do you see the date?

If yes, do you see the date with a 4 digit year?

And do your co-workers see that same date with a 2 digit year?

If all three of those are true, then it's the window setting for your short date
that's different from your co-worker's setting.



Rachael wrote:
>
> I checked and there is no * in front of my data, and it's the same
> (dd/mm/yyyy) on all the computers I have tried. And all computers are opening
> it as Ariel size 10, yet on my computer it's fine, but on others, I get #####
>
> "Dave Peterson" wrote:
>
> > I bet you and the recipient have different windows settings for the short date
> > format.
> >
> > My bet is you use something like:
> > mm/dd/yy
> > and the recipient uses
> > mm/dd/yyyy
> >
> > When you do Format|cells|Number tab and look at that cell's format, I'm betting
> > you see something like:
> >
> > *03/14/2001
> >
> > That asterisk means that you chose a short date format that is picked up from
> > the Windows Regional settings (Date tab).
> >
> > xl2002+ is more honest with the way it deals with dates.
> >
> > At the bottom of that dialog (xl2002+):
> >
> > Date formats display date and time serial numbers as date values. Except for
> > items that have an asterisk (*), applied formats do not switch date orders with
> > the operating system.
> >
> > Since yours is marked with an asterisk, your date will switch formats with the
> > setting in the OS.
> >
> > ==========
> > So you have a couple of choices--use a different format that isn't picked up
> > from the windows regional settings, widen the column, change the font size (or
> > change format|cells|alignment tab|check shrink to fit), or change your short
> > date format to be the longest it can be (I like mm/dd/yyyy).
> >
> > Rachael wrote:
> > >
> > > I created an excel sheet to track information. It's rather large. The sheet
> > > is being sent once a week to a client, and when they get it, the columns
> > > resize and some of the dates turn into #####. Why is that? What can I do to
> > > stop it? The data is fine on my computer, why is it showing larger on other
> > > people's systems?
> > >
> > > I have all the columns "autofit" so that I can fit more data into a page, so
> > > it's a tight fit. Will I just have to enlarge the columns?
> >
> > --
> >
> > Dave Peterson
> >

--

Dave Peterson