X-Axis Date

[Amber]

Hi,
I am making a graph with dates along the X-axis. The data was exported from
Access and is in the format m/dd/yyyy h:mm:ss AM/PM. Excell doesnt seem to
recognize this as a data format and it wont graph properly. I have tried
"format cells", but it doesnt work. What is really strange is that when I
click in the cell and then press enter, it converts to a date format that is
recognized by excell. I have over 2 years of hourly data, so I dont really
want to click in every cell. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Bernard Liengme]

Dates in Excel are actually numbers (see
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/datetime.htm)
Since editing converts you data to a date, it might be that you have
imported text not numbers

Try this:
Select and copy and empty cell (you have copied the value 0)
Select all the dates that need fixing; use Edit | Paste Special with Add
specified
Excel often converts text to numbers (when it is possible) with this trick
Tell us if it worked
best wishes

 

[Amber]

Yes it worked!
Thank you!

Dates in Excel are actually numbers (see
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/datetime.htm)
Since editing converts you data to a date, it might be that you have
imported text not numbers

Try this:
Select and copy and empty cell (you have copied the value 0)
Select all the dates that need fixing; use Edit | Paste Special with Add
specified
Excel often converts text to numbers (when it is possible) with this trick
Tell us if it worked
best wishes
--
Bernard V Liengme
Microsoft Excel MVP
http://people.stfx.ca/bliengme
remove caps from email

 

[Bernard Liengme]

Great! Thanks for the feedback