Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Excel and formatting dates

Entering Dates: While using Excel and entering dates a major difficulty that is usually faced is that of the format. The American style is to give the month first followed by the date; other countries follow different conventions. In India for example, the date comes first and then the month. Thus a date of 4/3/2011 would be read as 3rd of April by an American but as 4th of March by an Indian. Unfortunately the person who sets up your computer and loads various software usually does not bother to do the small adjustment that would take care of this. It is actually quite simple, go to the start button and then open the Control Panel. You would find a Regional Settings icon. Click on that and select the date option of your choice.

It is a good idea to simultaneously also select your language – the English language comes with a very large selection.

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