Format Cell

[bsfrey]

When I try to Format a Cell- Numbers - Date it defaults to 07/03/17 and I cannot change it.

[Zizi64]

Maybe your date is not a numeric value, but it is a simple text (string).
Try the "Value highlighting " function from the menu.

[bsfrey]

I am using Windows 10 Home and no matter how I enter a date I get the same results. I am not familiar with function option.

[Villeroy]

[Tutorial] Ten concepts that every Calc user should know (same as any spreadsheet of the past 30 years)

[bsfrey]

I understand the concept and have been using Excel for many years. What I don't understand is why it will not except any date I put in instead it substitutes something altogether different than what I enter.

[Zizi64]

What I don't understand is why it will not except any date I put in instead it substitutes something altogether different than what I enter.

Type-in the dates in ISO 8601 standard format (YYYY-MM-DD), then format them by a user defined Cell style.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

[RusselB]

Part of the problem is that Calc is relying on the locale reported by your computer to determine what date 07/03/17 is.
The options I can think of quickly are: July 3, 2017, Mar. 7, 2017, Mar. 17, 2007.
All of these are valid dates, but without knowing the date format that your computer is expecting, there's no way of determining which it is.
The dates you are entering are not being substituted, but are being displayed in a manner different from what you are entering.
If you think that the dates are being substituted, please give some examples showing the date that you entered and the date that you see displayed.

[Villeroy]

I understand the concept and have been using Excel for many years. What I don't understand is why it will not except any date I put in instead it substitutes something altogether different than what I enter.

you don't tell us if your cell has a text or number.
you don't tell us what you enter nor what you get.
I can enter dates, numbers and text exactly like I did in MS Excel some 20 years ago. There is hardly any difference between Calc and Excel.
20/ enters this months 20th day
20/7 enters this year's 20th July ( 7/20 in US context)
20/7/17 enters 20th July 2017 (7/20/17 in US context).
'20/7/17 (with leading apostrophe) enters a text with 5 digits and 2 slashes.
A cell that has been formatted with number format "@" treats any input as literal text.
=ISNUMBER(X99) tells if X99 has a number or not
Text is left bound. Numbers are right bound to the cell border.
menu:View>Highlight Values displays numbers in blue.
Only the last feature is Calc specific

[bsfrey]

I went through the process and made screenshots. I could not make any small enough, it said the file is too big even for one screenshot.
So here are the steps I did and the results.
New spreadsheet: Highlighted A1 through A30, went up to top of menu, selected Format, Cells, Numbers, Date. Middle of screen far right says 05/18/03, Hit OK.
Go back to A1 entered 010298, Enter. A1 show 10298. Go back to A1 to highlight, up to top of menu, selected Format, Cells, Numbers, Date. Middle of screen far right now says
03/11/28, Hit OK. A1 now says 03/11/28. Go up to Input line and delete that and re-enter 010298. A1 now displays 10298 again.
Hope this is clearer to understand.

[RusselB]

There is NOTHING in the sequence 010298 to tell Calc that you want it as a date. Use a - or a / to separate them.
Eg: 01-02-98 or 01/02/98
You could even enter it as Jan 2 98 or Feb 1 98 (depending on which of those you want)

If I enter 10298 into an unformatted cell, it shows as 10298
If I then format the cell as a date, it gives me the equivalent of Mar. 11, 1928

[Zizi64]

If I then format the cell as a date, it gives me the equivalent of Mar. 11, 1928

Read: Mar. 11, 1928 is the 010298-th day relative to the base date, which is 1899 dec. 30. by default.