Date format change?

[kbrooks]

I just received a db that was created in Word (?? I know nothing about making a db in Word) and was transferred into Access. I am now setting up queries, forms, etc for the user.

Two of the date fields were entered in a long format (September 1, 2003) and I would like them to be in a shorter format (09/01/2003). The fields are set up as text fields with no input mask. Can I just change that to a date field? I'm assuming it's not that easy.

 

[jon98548]

Seems to me when you change the format, the field is purged when you go to data view. You could copy that data into Excel, change the format of the data there and copy it back into the table after you change the table format.

Make a copy of the table and change the format just to see if it purges it. I do some trial and error tests that way.

But there could be a better way.