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Excel 2008, Copy / Pasting date field, wrong data….

2008 September 22nd
4 Comments

Here’s another great head scratcher in the office debacle – why when you are copying date fields from one sheet to another does Excel feel the need to change the date? It all about the 1904 date format you see. All new sheets created in Excel are automatically set to the 1904 date format whereas all previous versions of Excel were set to the 1900 Date format – it’s an easy fix.

In the sheet that you wish to copy the date to, open up the preferences (Excel -> Preferences). 

Excel Date Problem - Preference Screen

You then need to open up the ‘Calculations’ section of the preferences.

Excel Date Problem - Calculations Screen

Then simple select and uncheck the ‘Use 1904 Date System’ – hey presto, if you copy data from your ‘old’ sheet, it will magically appear correctly in the new sheet!

Note: If you are using a Windows computer, you will need to go to Tools -> Options -> Calculation Tab.

Filed under Apple Mac, Trouble Shooting
4 comments to...
“Excel 2008, Copy / Pasting date field, wrong data….”
craig iskowitz
October 30th, 2008

I’ve been struggling with this stupid issue for the past few weeks. Now I find out that it’s a “feature” and not a bug? Who gives a shit about macs that are so old, they can’t recognize dates prior to 1904? What percentage of Excel users will ever enter a date prior to 1904? Why are 99% of Excel 2008 users being subjected to this default functionality, when it is a detriment to our work? Leave it to Microsoft to create software that makes the Mac *less* useful.


Karen
January 21st, 2009

Thank you – this issue has been causing huge problems in a new template design I was creating. It was a relief to “untick” that 1904 box – instant fix.


Adeline
July 8th, 2009

Thank you!!!! I have been having this problem for a while now (since I started using Office 2008) and all this time I just manually reinserted the dates (how tedious!). But right now I’m working on a rather large data, so it’s no good if I have to manually change it one by one. So thanks a lot for the info!


Mashook
July 31st, 2009

Actually, this is Microsoft stupidity carried into both Windows and Mac OSX ports. This is equal opportunity foolishness. This was the default setting on my Windows XP copy as well as my Mac copy.




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