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Changing Excel's Starting Date
Summary: How to change the arbitrary date used to set the beginning point for serial numbers in Excel. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, and Excel 2003.)
Excel allows you to choose which arbitrary date you use as the beginning point for serial numbers. In the PC world, this date is January 1, 1900. If you are working with Excel workbooks imported from the Macintosh environment, however, you will want to set the starting date to January 2, 1904--the date used on the Mac. To set which of these two dates is used, follow these steps:
- Choose Options from the Tools menu. Excel displays the Options dialog box.
- Make sure the Calculation tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
Tip #2817 applies to Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
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