1.4 Decimal points and dates

If you are using a version of Excel other than the English (UK) one, you may have noticed the different date format and decimal point. In addition, one of the Excel’s habits of automatically adjusting the format of cell contents can sometimes produce unwanted or incorrect results. Therefore, it is useful to learn how things can be corrected and adjusted in Excel.

In your Excel spreadsheet, click on File, select Options and then select the Advanced tab; the results of this are shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5 Advanced options in Excel

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A screenshot showing how to select the advanced option in Excel to format the date.

Figure 5 Advanced options in Excel

If you untick the box ‘Use system separators’, you can enter alternative symbols to use instead.

You can adjust the date format by selecting a cell that contains a date, then clicking on Format in the Home ribbon under Cells and Format Cells … or by right-clicking on the cells and selecting Format Cells … from the context menu.

Figure 6 below shows you the ‘Format’ dialog for an English version of Excel installed on a computer. You can produce the desired date format; for example, DD/MM/YYYY by selecting the option and then clicking OK.

Figure 6 Changing the date format

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Figure 6 shows the Format Cells window in Excel. The Number tab is selected; under the Category menu on the left, Date is highlighted, and on the right is the Type menu showing various different date formatting options. At the bottom of the window are the OK and Cancel buttons.

Figure 6 Changing the date format