excel formatting

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Excel formatting

resolvedResolved · Low Priority · Version 365

Uday has attended:
Excel Intermediate course

Excel formatting

I have collated a data spreadsheet showing activity records by date. The source material was originally in a CSV format which I converted to excel.

I am trying to sort the data by date order but it won't let me. I have formatted the date column to "date" rather than general, but even with this, when I try to filter the data it only gives me the option to filter "A to Z" or "Z to A", not in date order.

How do I resolve this?

Thanks,

Uday

RE: excel formatting

Hi Uday,

Thank you for the forum question.

Even that you format a column to date formatting, Excel will not treat the content as dates. Only if the dates in the column are the correct structure.

If the dates have the correct structure, you can select the dates and change the formatting to general. Then the dates should turn into a numbers. If you type the date 01/01/1900 in a cell and change the formatting to general formatting the cell will change and display 1.

If it looks like dates when the cells are general formatted, then the dates are structured wrong and Excel sees the dates as text strings.

The Power Query tool in Excel can probably solve the issue.



Kind regards

Jens Bonde
Microsoft Office Specialist Trainer

Tel: 0207 987 3777
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Wed 23 Nov 2022: Automatically marked as resolved.


 

Excel tip:

Removing the Ribbon from view in Excel 2010

At times when you want to view the whole spreadsheet, try double clicking on the ''Home'' tab on the ribbon which will hide the ribbon from view.

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