Unable to sort dates in Excel on new PC

[freebird795]

Hope somebody can help as this is driving me doolally-tap.

We have an access database at work which produces reports in Excel; install dates, closure dates, etc.

Everything worked fine until last week when I received a new laptop. Since then I cannot sort things by date, unless I convert them to values, etc.

A typical 'sorted' list looks like this:
01/12/2014
03/11/2014
03/12/2014
05/01/2015
08/12/2014
18/08/2014
Everybody else can sort them correctly. Nothing has changed on the database or any of the templates that we use. It would appear to be something on my new copy of Excel. I've gone through the menus and options and can't find anything.

Also, If I send a file to anybody else, they can sort it with no issue.

Any help is much appreciated.

 

[steve the fish]

It looks as though excel is seeing them as text rather than true dates. Try using text to columns on the column the dates are in then sorting. Or press sort and if any are text a dialog box should appear. Tick the sort anything that looks like number as numbers. I don't really have a clue why other users would find this file ok though.

 

[Jonmo1]

Since it started when you got a new laptop....

You probably need to change your regional settings (in the Windows Control Panel) to English UK
Or whatever region you prefer that uses dd/mm/yyyy formats instead of mm/dd/yyyy

 

[Luxsparks]

I am having the same issues since upgrading to Yosemite and even using the latest MS upgrade.
using UK region =date will reply dd/mm only if i set my region to USA =date will return mm/dd/yy
i have had to go through lines of code to amend =format (date, "dd/mm/yy"" hope this helps

 

[freebird795]

Thanks for the speedy responses.

Steve - you're right, it does appear to be seeing them as text rather than dates but I don't know why. They come out of the database as dates; everybody else's Excel sees them as dates and even my old PC saw them as dates. But for some reason on this new machine they show up as text.

Jonmo/Luxsparks - I've tried the regional settings every which way I can, and it's not made a blind bit of difference.

 

[Jonmo1]

Jonmo/Luxsparks - I've tried the regional settings every which way I can, and it's not made a blind bit of difference.

Make sure you close (without saving) and reopen the book after each time you change the regional settings.