[deutsch]

I copied a group of dates from one workbook to another. When I did this, the dates advanced four years and one day. What had been 1-2-2005 in the old workbook was now 1-3-2009. When I imported the worksheet containing these dates into MS-Access the dates changed to 4 years and 1 day earlier from 1-2-05 to 1-1-01. I'm currently using ms-office 2004 on the mac os 10.4 and also crossing platforms with virtual pc to ms-office xp in windows xp. Does anybody have any ideas about what is going on?

 

[ReeKorl]

What you're experiencing is the difference between the date systems. Usually on PC's, excel uses the 1900 date system, where 1/1/1900 is equated to the value 1, with 1/1/1901 being 366, 1/1/1902 being 731, etc, with each extra day being worth an extra number. Mac's I believe use a differing 1904 date system, with 1 being the second of January 1904. There is a setting in Excel which uses the Mac system - if you go to:

Tools -> Options -> Calculation -> 1904 Date system

this should show the correct date when imported now.