Excel Date Formatting VS Regional Settings

[asvforce]

I have a problem where I am creating excel file with date format of "mm/dd/yyyy" and my machine's regional settings are English (US). Now when my end user downloads my excel (who has English (Canada)) they see the excel file with no issues except the date's messed up due to their regional settings. So, my date is "08/05/2011" and when they open the excel file they see "5/8/2011". But what i noticed is when they try to edit the cell they still see original value "08/05/2011" and hence they start complaining that the dates info are incorrect.

My question here is that Is there anyway where they dont have to change their regional settings but still see the correct date formats in original as (mm/dd/yyyy)?

Please suggest, Thanks

 

[shg]

Your Canadian user sees two different things because the formula bar shows the date in the short date format set in Control Panel, and the date in the cell the way you formatted it, which are different.

You could format the output unambiguously, e.g., in ISO format yyyy-mm-dd.