Thankful for 20 Years of MrExcel on November 21

November 20, 2018 - by Bill Jelen

MrExcel.com debuted on November 21, 1998 when Bill Jelen answered a question about how to convert daily dates to monthly dates in Excel.

Kevin wrote:

I want to use a pivot table to summarize dates, but I want to see it at the month level instead of at the daily level. I tried simply formatting the date column to display a month, but the pivot table still breaks the data out by day.

My answer that day involved using a formula of =A2-DAY(A2)+1. Here is a screenshot of that first answer:

Sitting here today, twenty years later, I wonder why I did not use =EOMONTH(A2,-1)+1 or even use the Group Field solution in a pivot table to roll daily dates up to months and years.

The old MrExcel logo with stylized text lasted until 2002 when our current logo was invented.

Also: It was John "Mr Spreadsheet" Walkenbach who suggested I get rid of the annoying Excel grid in the background... "I would spend more time at your site, except for the annoying grid behind the words!".