Year only dates can be entered into spreadsheets

without encountering any problems, as shown for piece number 52.

However, when I try to enter a month/year date,

spreadsheet software such as Excel converts the date to a text format.

This can be seen here when I enter the First date and Last dates

for piece number 53.

To prevent this automatic reformatting,

the format of the cells needs to be amended before entering the data.

There are many ways to do this; here are two ways in Excel.

Select the cell

and choose the Number format drop down list in the Home ribbon,

and select Text.

Select the cell and right click the mouse in that cell.

Select Format cells and on the Number tab, select Text, then select OK.

You can see the format of the date is now retained.

If you are using another spreadsheet software, the method will be similar.