Thread: Making a date in Excel

Spreadsheets are a great way to keep track of projects that involve dates, but the way that Excel uses dates often confuses new users. On a new chart, enter 25/12/2007 in cell B10 Selectthis cell, then press Control and 1 together to open the Format Cell options. Look at the options for date formatting: this date can be displayed in different ways. We selected a long date format (25 December 2008) and clicked OK.

With dates entered into Excel and formatted properly, you can do some useful things. Select cell B 1, then click the fill handle (the cross on the bottom right-hand comer of the cell) with the left mouse button then drag it down a few cells before releasing the button. Excel will automatically generate the next dates - this is far quicker than entering all the dates yourself. Click Control and Z together to remove the dates you just created.



Next, Bselect cell B2, then press Control and 1 together to open the Format Cells box. Select to format the cell as a number with no (0) decimal places, and click OK. Now type in =B1-TODAYO and press Enter-the cell will now show the number of days until Christmas.