I have a project where the dates are all in Text format and to add to the problem many of ther dates are pre 1900 which Excel does not like. The other piece of information I have is a period of time which may be recorded as Days, Months or Years but I can work with that OK.

So I would like to take a text date like 24 September 1872 and for example subtrach 14 days from it to result in 10 September 1872.

I am thinking I am going to have to convert the text date, do the subtraction and then convert back to text so Excel will be happy with the pre 1900 date format but I have no idea where to begin.

All help and pointers very welcome.