title: Loss of number/date formatting when linking MS Excel files to MS Access
body: <p>Hi and thanks in advance for the help.</p>
  
  <p>I have an Access 2007 database that has tables created by live links to several Microsoft Excel 2010 spreadsheets.</p>
  
  <p>I have several Access macros that run queries against these linked tables, and I find that the formatting of the output is in very strange formatting if I run the macros, without first having those linked Excel spreadsheet files open.</p>
  
  <p>To put it another way, if I open the linked spreadsheets and run the Access macros, all the data formats correctly, but if I have the linked Excel spreadsheets closed when I run my Access macros, the formatting goes all funny - particularly with date fields.</p>
  
  <p>Can anyone offer any advice on how I can resolve this problem?</p>
  
  <p>Many thanks</p>
  
  <p>Kim </p>