Microsoft KB Archive/23059

How to Enter a Date with a Format PSS ID Number: Q23059 Article last modified on 10-17-1990 PSS database name: D_MPlan

3.00 3.01 3.02 3.04 4.00 4.01 4.20

MS-DOS

Summary:

If you want to enter a date under Alpha in the form mm-yy, when you enter a date such as 03-87, Multiplan interprets this as text, not a serial date.

Multiplan has certain predefined formats that it reads as dates when they are entered under Alpha. For example, if you enter 3/3/87 under Alpha, Multiplan reads this as a serial date because m/d/yy is one of the predefined Date Formats. A complete list of the predefined formats is on Page 310 of the “Microsoft Multiplan User’s Manual.”

You can display a date in almost any format you want to define, but you cannot add to the list of what Multiplan automatically understands to be a date when you try to enter the date under the Alpha command. For example, you might define a Date Format in a cell to be mm-yy, but you still must enter the date in one of the predefined formats such as 3/3/87. Once Multiplan reads the entry as a serial number, you will see a number in the lower-left corner of the screen. In this example, the number will be 31839. Because you formatted the cell with the mm-yy format, Multiplan will display it as 03-87.

Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1990.