When you enter a date such as 4/3 in Excel, the default date format is 04-Mar. You can quickly reformat it using the drop-down button in the Number group on the Home tab and select Short Date or Long Date, but what if you also want to display the day? For example, Monday 06 March 2017? Some people use the Text Function to in a separate column (=TEXT(A1,"ddd") but there is a way to format dates to include the day of the week.
Here’s how:
1. Right-click the cell containing the date(s) or the whole column.
2. Select Format Cells from the menu.
3. If necessary (probably not) display the Number tab.
4. Select the Custom option in the Category box.
5. In the Type box, double-click on the word General and type the custom format of your choice. (Mine is ddd dd mmmm yyyy.)
6. Press ENTER or click OK
Herewith some other options you might like to try out in step 5 … to get Tuesday 12 December 2017 when you type 12/12, set the Custom format as dddd dd mmmm yyyy. Or if you prefer to see it as Tue 12/12/17 try out ddd dd/mm/yy. The underlying date you typed won’t change and can be checked by looking in the Formula Bar.
Related tips:
Display your numbers with leading zeros : http://roem.co.uk/tip_193.html
Convince Excel you want to type July 2010 : http://roem.co.uk/tip_313.php
Save time entering dates : http://roem.co.uk/tip_442.php
Unless stated otherwise, these tips were written for Microsoft Office 2010.
6 March 2017
Karen Roem offers software training and support through her company Roem Ltd. Contact her by email (Karen@roem.co.uk) or visit her website at www.roem.co.uk