Can I tap into the vast wealth of IT knowledge...
Recently a colleague had a virus that has messed up all the settings (or I suppose the fixing of said virus changed all the settings).

Anyway we have a template document in Excell that when everyone else types in (e.g.) 14/08/08 it will autoformat to 14th August 2008 but when she writes that it autoformats to 2014 August 08.

I always though that Excell's formatting was sheet dependent as there isn't a normal template but is there a way to tell it to always format dates the same way?

Any and all help appreciated :)
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Thu 14 Aug 2008, 9:56, 7 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

I haven't used Excel for quite a while,
but I would check a couple of things first -

Does it do this with the autoformat/autocomplete on any other programs? If so, what does her computer's clock reckon the date is? It's possible that something (e.g., that virus) has confused it.

Otherwise, I'm pretty sure there's something on Excel for personalising your settings (not sure where as I don't have it on my own machine), which could well override the settings on the template. It's probably under something like "Options," or "Settings."

(Apologies if I'm just suggesting obvious things that you've already tried!)
(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 14 Aug 2008, 11:08, Reply)

I'd do a search for
*.xlt files, there should be a standard one called book.xlt or sheet.xlt (dependant on version of Excel)

It should normally be in

/documents and settings/local settings/app data/microsoft/officeX (where X is a number)

or

/documents and settings/app data/microsoft/officeX

Copy it to your documents, then rename the original to book1.xlt / sheet1.xlt and Excel should recreate the original stock template when you restart the program.
(Ethelred is watching cheese grow, Thu 14 Aug 2008, 11:27, Reply)

Great
Thanks guys I will try those things :)
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Thu 14 Aug 2008, 13:18, Reply)

can you
cunt a computer in the fuck?
(Halfy By light alone, Thu 14 Aug 2008, 13:21, Reply)

^ Yes, you can.
The most commonly used method is also known as "Installing Windows Vista."
(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 14 Aug 2008, 13:39, Reply)

@ Supreme Crow
dix points
(Ethelred is watching cheese grow, Thu 14 Aug 2008, 13:41, Reply)

Ta
I know it's a cheap shot, but I really do hate that bloated excuse for an operating system.
(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 14 Aug 2008, 13:54, Reply)