Problem with copying and pasting dates

[Lauren]

Hi all,

I am working with an employee list that includes
everyone's start date. I have copied this list into
several Excel 2002 spreadsheets (all with the same format)
for various reasons and I just noticed that somewhere
along the way, the start dates changed. All of the dates
are increased by 5 years and 1 day. Has anyone ever heard
of this happening? Is there anything I can do to correct
this?

I would appreciate any thoughts on this.

Thank you.

 

[Frank Kabel]

Hi
different settings for the date base is the reason for this. Check
'Tools - Options - Calculation'. In the worksheet with the changed
dates the '1904 date setting' is probably checked

 

[Dave Peterson]

Maybe 4 days + 1 day?????

Just some more info:

One workbook was using a base year of 1900 and the other was using 1904.
(tools|options|calculation tab|1904 date system)

One way to add those four years back is to find an empty cell, put 1462 into
that cell.

Copy that cell.

Select your range that contains the dates. Edit|PasteSpecial|click Add (in the
operation box).

You may have to reformat the cell as a date (mine turned to a 5 digit number).
But it should work.

You may want to do it against a copy...just in case.

(I'm not sure which one you'll fix. You may want to edit|pastespecial|click
subtract.)

Most windows users use 1900 as the base date. Mac users (mostly??) use 1904 as
the base date.

 

[Lauren]

Wow! Thanks for the information. I will check this out.

Lauren

 

[Lauren]

Thanks so much! I will check this out.

Lauren

-----Original Message-----
Maybe 4 days + 1 day?????

Just some more info:

One workbook was using a base year of 1900 and the other was using 1904.
(tools|options|calculation tab|1904 date system)

One way to add those four years back is to find an empty cell, put 1462 into
that cell.

Copy that cell.

Select your range that contains the dates.

Edit|PasteSpecial|click Add (in the