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21 Nov 2009

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	Dates wrong when copying data in Excel

Solution Excel stores dates as an offset from a particular base point in time. The Mac and PC versions of Excel use different base date which are 4 years apart with the Mac's being in 1904 and the PCs being in 1900.

The problem occurs when you copy data from a sheet created on a Mac into a sheet created on a PC (or vice-versa). The copied data only contains the offset part of the date and the two sheets are using a different "base" so when you paste the data the date appears wrong (its four years and one leap day out).

To fix the problem tell the PC (or Mac) to operate with the date system used by the other one. To do this open the Options... window from the Tools menu. Under the Calculation tab check (or uncheck) the "1904 date system" option to either change the PC to 1904 time or the Mac to 1900 time.

In Excel 2007 this menu is found by going to the Office button in the top left and selecting Excel Options. Now select the Advanced Tab. Towards the bottom of this screen is an area called When Calculating this workbook. The 1904 tick box is here.

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16 Aug 2007 05:56 PM