Excel overriding date format

Copper Contributor

For years I've been entering dates on a spreadsheet in the format yyyy/mm/dd. Now Excel has gotten "smart" and reverses them to dd/mm/yyyy.  I can now only correct new entries by laboriously customizing each entry. There must be some way to universally reset the format to my original form. But how?

4 Replies
Change the way your dates are displayed in Windows date and time settings. Excel uses that to decide how to display them.
Thanks for your response, But MS doesn't seem to offer the date option "yyyy/mm'dd"/ Meanwhile, I have solved my problem by switching the format of my date column to "text". Then I can enter dates in any format I want.
Thanks again,
DaveH440

@DaveH440 

Press Windows key+R to activate the Run dialog.

Enter   control international   and press Enter or click OK.

Click the Additional settings... button.

Activate the Date tab.

You can enter your preferred short date format in the box, for example yyyy/MM/dd:

 

HansVogelaar_0-1683464630295.png

 

Click OK to confirm.

Thanks so much--this does indeed solve my problem!
DaveH440