Excel Dates for Beginners | Everything You Need to Know

Dates in Excel can be confusing — especially when dates don’t sort correctly, Excel shows numbers instead of dates, or a date is treated as text. In this beginner-friendly Excel tutorial, you’ll learn how dates work in Microsoft Excel and how to enter, format, calculate, and troubleshoot them correctly. In this video, you’ll learn: ✅ How Excel stores dates ✅ How to enter dates correctly ✅ How to format dates in different ways ✅ Custom date formats like dd/mm/yyyy, mmm-yy, and mmmm yyyy ✅ TODAY() and NOW() functions ✅ How to add and subtract days from dates ✅ How to calculate the number of days between two dates ✅ How to calculate age in Excel ✅ DAY(), MONTH(), and YEAR() functions ✅ How to create dates using the DATE() function ✅ Why Excel dates sometimes appear as numbers ✅ Why your dates may not sort correctly ✅ How to identify dates stored as text ✅ How to fix common Excel date problems ✅ A practical date-tracking example Whether you're completely new to Excel or you've struggled with dates before, this tutorial will give you a solid foundation for working with dates in Excel. 📌 Chapters: 00:00 Excel Dates for Beginners 00:52 How Excel Stores Dates 02:05 Entering Dates Correctly 03:45 Formatting Dates 06:45 TODAY() and NOW() 07:55 Adding & Subtracting Dates 8:45 Calculating Age 9:20 DAY, MONTH & YEAR 9:55 Creating Dates with DATE() 10:30 Common Excel Date Problems 13:10 Sorting Dates Correctly 13:30 Practical Date Tracker 14:30 Summary If you're learning Excel from the beginning, subscribe to MS Excel Mastery for practical Excel tutorials, formulas, shortcuts, and beginner-friendly examples.