How to format dates in Excel quickly and easily

When entering a date value, you may encounter some cases where the displayed value is not the date value you entered but an integer. For example, you enter the date value 12/02/2012 but the value displayed on the spreadsheet is not 02/12/2012 but the number 40951. So what is this value of 40951?

Simple instructions for formatting dates in Excel

Step 1: Press the key combination Windows + S , enter Control Panel in the search box => click Open .

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Step 2: Click Clock and Region .

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Step 3: Click Region .

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- Select Country => date format as desired => OK .

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Step 1: Open the Excel file you want to format, highlight the date data area => right -click and select Format Cells .

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Step 2: Press Custom => time format options => OK .

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Step 3: After completing the result of changing the date format will be displayed as shown below.

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Step 1: Open the Excel file with date format, highlight the data area => right- click and click Format Cells .

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Step 2: Select Date => date and country format options => OK .

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Step 3: The results immediately change as below.

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Besides the above methods, users can also use shortcuts in Excel to easily format dates

- Ctrl + ";" : Enter the date, month, year in the box.

- Ctrl + Shift + ';' : Enter the time in the table.

- Ctrl + ';' combination of key press and key combination Ctrl + Shift + ';' : To enter date, month, year and time into Excel data table at the same time.

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In addition, Excel also allows users to use functions to format dates in Excel:

- TODAY function:

+ Formula: =TODAY()

+ Using the TODAY function will help you update the date, month, year, and year into the table data.

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- NOW function:

+ Formula: =NOW()

+ Unlike the TODAY function, using the NOW function will add more detailed hours and minutes.

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So TipsMake has just finished showing you how to format dates in Excel 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, 2003. By formatting dates, it will help you calculate more accurately. For those who are new to using this tool, this is indeed a very necessary tip. In addition, the collection of 50 shortcut keys to use Ctrl in Excel that we send to you below is also one of the tips you must remember when using Excel.

Marvin Fry

Update 18 June 2024