Opening excel file in Numbers

Question

Opening excel file in Numbers

When I open an excel file in Numbers, that has a column of dates, the field is 5 digit numbers that are the Excel intrinsic format. How do I import it such that it displays the date rather than the number code?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Mar 30, 2021 11:03 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

hhugof

Level 1

15 points

Apr 3, 2021 2:37 AM in response to handlewithcare

I found the easiest way to handle this:

Download and install Excel for Mac from the Mac App Store. It doesn't require a license to display Excel files, just to create or edit them.
Open your Excel file in both Excel and Numbers.
Copy the date column in Excel and paste it in Numbers.

Reply

Answer 2

Yellowbox

Level 7

21,047 points

Mar 31, 2021 4:40 AM in response to handlewithcare

Hi handlewithcare

See the solution by Hiroto in this discussion:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4993043?answerId=25227162022#25227162022

In order to get date in B1 from date serial number in A1, set the formula in B1 to:

=DATE(1904,1,1)+A1

Please call back with questions.

Regards,

Ian.

Reply

Answer 3

SGIII

Level 8

36,038 points

Mar 31, 2021 6:14 AM in response to handlewithcare

That may be because you are opening an old Excel format. In Excel try saving as .xlsx. Or if you don't have Excel open the file in LibreOffice (the free Office clone) and save it as .xlsx from there. Numbers should then recognized the dates as dates.

SG

Reply

Opening excel file in Numbers

Similar questions