Why does Numbers change dates within the spreadsheet when I export to Excel?

Tom,

I think you should know that the forums are answered by fellow users NOT Apple employees.

With regard to the rest of the issue(s) in your post...

The general guidance I, and others, have provided to people who need, as a regular part of the business, to exchange files with Excel user is to use Excel. Do not waste your time with Numbers as there are enough headaches between different versions of Excel.

Numbers is not excel and makes little attempt to be an excel replacement. Numbers was free and as such, well, you get what you pay for. That begin said it is a work in progress.

I think the specific problem you have is that you ARE NOT in control of the excell before it arrives to you and after you return it. So the

If your business simply cannot afford to purchase excel you can try some free Office clones.

Finally, there is a checkbox in "Excel Options > Advanced > When Calculating This Workbook" called "Use 1904 data system" Since the data system can change it seems that there is alsways a way for excel to misinterpret the date.

I hope some of thie is helpful.

To leave feedback for Apple use the menu item "Numbers > Provide Numbers Feedback". This is common in most any Apple-made application

Tom,

User forums are pretty much the standard these days. Often users are more in tune with how other users use the product. You can get get help by going to an Apple store and there is 1-800 help for some period after purchase and ususally pay-for service.

And, really.... we're not that bad.... are we? 😉

Hi Tom,

I just experienced the same problem when trying to export from numbers to excel. The solution that I found worked for me is to use the advanced options when exporting and I chose xls instead of xlsx as the file extension. This worked in terms of keeping the date format consistent. I'm not sure why it worked but it did.

Hopefully this is a quick fix for you. In terms of the long run I'm in the same boat, I just bought a new Mac and I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to buy microsoft office over using numbers and pages. Office is the industry standard and to have to export and hope all your data is intact with numbers and pages definitely does not instill confidence.

Good luck with it!

I have Office for compatibility and for reading Word/Excel/Powerpoint documents that are sent to me. It is better to read and edit documents in their native app. But I use Numbers, Pages, and Keynote almost exclusively for my own documents, exporting to Office only when necessary.

The problem normally happen if the original file created on Excel for Windows and then opened from Mac, or other way around.. It happened to me many times.

What Badunit said was true.. You need to change the preference date..

From Mac go to Excel - Preference - Calculation.

On the right side, there is click box (Use the 1904 date system), then unclick the box.

But becareful, the old data that you already have may also change to 4years back.

I have the same issue when working on spreadsheets that my accountant has access to from her PC.

Both of us are working in xl but when I cut and paste from one page to another, four years and 1 day are added to all the dates (e.g., 10-Mar-2014 changes to 11-Mar-2018).

So, if I untick the 1904 box, do I save the document and then tick the box again when I'm finished?

Just did some experimenting and the 1904 box ticked seems to be the default so it reverts to that without my having to go back and tick the box.

Tom Jindra wrote:

I've no idea what version of Excel was involved, but I'm skeptical that's relevant.

Windows calculates dates from 1900 onwards, OS X from 1904 later versions of Excel know how to deal with it, Numbers does not.

You'll have to manually alter the dates, and frankly if your clients use Excel so should you.