date fields in Excel output

[barryl]

I had a need to transfer data from a BG fileset to a lawyer (no need to explain why :-) ) and we agreed that Excel output was the best way. To make the output I used BS408 (Transaction analyser), with some specific selections and right clicked and chose "output as Excel file". BG outputs 2 files called (for example) ABCD.XLS and ABCD-5.XLS

I looked at the ABCD.XLS file and wished to sort it on the date field. This turned out to be impossible as for all months except September Excel was treating the field as text and not as a date. This also means that the format of the date cannot be changed. (and why September is special I have no idea !)

However the ABCD-5.XLS file (for XLS 5) works fine, so  I am writing this note to advise people to use that one rather than the other.

George: maybe drop the first one?

[ideasguy]

Well written Barry

ABCD-5.xls worked for you, but that might not be the case with other users who have a different version of Excel, so I think its best to allow the program to continue to create two "flavours" of Excel file to be on the safe side (sods law?).