excel Cell issue

[Jamie]

I have a cell that I want to insert a date into it by typing the date.

The problem is this cell for some reason is always trying to force me into a
formula. So I have to use =now(). So if I just enter a date say today
10/15/2008 and hit enter it puts a = in front of the date and I don't get
the date in the cell anymore. I get 01/00/00.

Any suggestions on how I can get this so I can just insert a standard date?

 

[Dave Peterson]

In xl2003 menus:
Tools|Options|Transition tab
Uncheck all those Lotus 123 options--especially "transition formula entry"

With that option checked, excel interprets your entry using Lotus 123 rules and
sees 11/9/2008 as =11/9/2008 (or 11 divided by 9 divided by 2008).

This is a small number that represents a time on that January 0, 1900 date.

 

[Jamie]

Dave, thank you it was this setting on the specific spreadsheet.
Tools|Options|Transition tab
Uncheck "transition formula entry"