How do I keep Excel from changing my date format?

Microsoft Excel is one of the most widely used productivity software tools in existence. As such, it can be incredibly helpful in tracking data and helping users to organize and analyze information. Unfortunately, Excel also has a few quirks that can make it a bit of a hassle to use, such as its tendency to automatically reformat dates.

When entering dates into Excel, the program will often take it upon itself to reformat the date to a different format than the one you enter. This can be incredibly frustrating, as it can lead to incorrect information being entered in the wrong fields. Fortunately, there are a few ways to keep Excel from changing your date format, allowing you to enter the dates as you need them to be.

The first step is to make sure that the “Number Format” option is set to “General.” This will ensure that Excel does not try to automatically format the date in any particular way. However, this is not a foolproof solution, as Excel may still try to reformat the date if the format is unclear.

The second way to prevent Excel from changing your date format is to select the cells where you will be entering the date and then select “Format Cells.” This will bring up a dialog box where you can select the “Date” option and then set the format you want to use. This will ensure that Excel always uses the same format when entering dates.

Finally, if you are dealing with a large amount of data, you may want to set up a macro that will ensure that your dates are always entered in the same format. This can be done by recording a macro that will set the date format for all the cells in a particular range.

Although it can be annoying, Excel’s tendency to automatically reformat dates does not have to be a major problem. By following the steps outlined above, you can keep Excel from changing your date format and prevent incorrect information from being entered.