Excel date obstruction!

[Terry Pinnell]

I have a column in which I want to type dates like
December 2004
June 2003
etc

IOW, no fancy formatting. But how in darnation do I do it please? It
seems I cannot use 'General' for a date, or my entries are turned into
a serial number like 37956. After using custom and entering 'mmmm
yyyy', I seemed to make progress. But now I cannot *edit* such an
entry. Excel insists on showing 'December 2003' in the edit box as
'01/12/2003'.

 

[Frank Kabel]

Hi
if you want a real date value you have to enter a complete date (e.g.
01-12-2004). You can then format it.
Otherwiese just enter these values as 'text'. e.g. preformat the cell as
'Text'

 

[Ron Rosenfeld]

I have a column in which I want to type dates like
December 2004
June 2003
etc

IOW, no fancy formatting. But how in darnation do I do it please? It
seems I cannot use 'General' for a date, or my entries are turned into
a serial number like 37956. After using custom and entering 'mmmm
yyyy', I seemed to make progress. But now I cannot *edit* such an
entry. Excel insists on showing 'December 2003' in the edit box as
'01/12/2003'.

And how does that stop you from "editing" the entry? You should still be able
to edit the entry in the cell (see Tools/Options/Edit settings and Select Edit
Directly in Cell) , or type into the formula bar something like April 2005.

Perhaps I misunderstand what you mean by "Edit".

In any event, I believe you have only two choices. You may enter the data as
you describe, formatting the cell mmmm yyyy.

Or you may enter your data as text -- e.g. preformat the cell as text or
precede your entry with an apostrophe. In this case, Excel will not recognize
your entry as a date, and you will have difficulty doing date related
operations on your entry.


--ron