Formatted Dates Appear Differently on

Different Systems
1

Edward has noticed a problem with formatted dates on different machines. Many times he will
create a workbook on one computer but use a different computer to print the report for inclusion
in a mailing. Even though he has the cells formatted one way when he creates the report (i.e., the
date is mm/dd/yy), when he opens the workbook on the second computer the date will appear
differently (mm/dd/yyyy). This causes problems with the appearance of the final printed report as
the cell data is then truncated.

This occurs because of differences in the way that system dates are set up on the two machines.
On one machine the system date is set up in Windows to display using two digits for the year,
while the other is set up to display using four.

How does this affect Excel? Some of the date formats in Excel automatically use the system
date format used by Windows. When you display the Number tab of the Format Cells dialog box
you know that Excel provides a number of different date formats you can select. Note that some
of the formats have an asterisk in front of them. These represent the "system date" formats. If you
select one of these, it means that Excel uses the corresponding system date format to display the
information in the cell. If you move the workbook to a different system and the formats used for
system dates are different, then the dates will display differently in those cells.

The solution is to either change the system date formats to be the same on both systems (done
in Windows, in the Regional Settings applet of the Control Panel), or simply pick a different date
format in Excel. You'll want to pick one that doesn't have an asterisk in front of it, or define your
own custom date format. You should then have no problem with different displays of the dates on
the different systems.