F2 shortcut and strange formatting of date fields

[Guest]

This maybe an easy question but I am stumped.

If I click in a cell and hit F2 and enter then the formatting of my date
field is amended somehow.

How can I apply the F2 + enter to a large number of cells all at the same
time?

For some date fields in my spreadsheet when changed to general format,
become a number, others remain as dates - why is this and how do I get them
all to be the same format (other than the F2 method I have discovered)

 

[Guest]

The F2 key simply takes you into the edit cell mode. the reason the date
format changes is that it should change to the short date for your operating
system region and after editing, it should change back to the original format.

Formatting dates to all look the same, to save re-inventing the wheel, I
suggest that you look up 'format dates' in help and I am sure that you will
get there. Depending on the version of xl that you are using (2007 or earlier
versions) it is a slightly different explanation to achieve the same result.

Regards,

OssieMac