title: Excel 2007 Database Date Formatting
body: <p>I have a list of 568 dates in a excel table. </p>
  
  <p>I read the first few dates as mm/dd/yyyy as follows,</p>
  
  <pre><code>1/2/2009 (Jan 2)
  1/2/2009 (Jan 2)
  1/16/2009 (Jan 16)
  2/1/2009 (Feb 6)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When I select format cells the computer converts to dd/mm/yyyy as follows as rewrites as, </p>
  
  <pre><code>2/1/2009 (Feb 1)    &lt;&lt; Switches date and month.
  2/1/2009 (Feb 1)    &lt;&lt; Switches date and month.
  1/16/2009 (Jan 16)  &lt;&lt; Leaves in place because it cant convert 16 to a month
  1/2/2009 (Jan 2)    &lt;&lt; Switches date and month.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I tried to copy and past special-values into pre-formated cells but the problem persists. The cells cant be formatted prior to this action because it converts all the value.
  Also tried SQL formatting update which did not work.</p>
  
  <p>Note: This is a spread sheet coming from a mac computer.</p>
  
  <p>Note: If I type the date into the field it gives me the correct format. But if I cut and past the date, it gives me the old cell format that I cant seem to change, even if I past special value. </p>
  
  <p>I plan to retype the dates manually but I rather not because this list is already perfect and I think this excel program should be able to fix this. Any help would be great.</p>
  
  <p>I need the program to think of these dates as they are already listed... as mm/dd/yyyy with no Strings attached!</p>