>I need to alter a column in EXCEL so that the data type gets changed to *04/28/2009 format, rather
>than a previously created Custom format of mm/dd/yyyy so that I can append from the EXCEL file
>into a table and not have the date go missing. How do you do this with Microsoft Automation?

Cecil,
Your question is not clear. mm/dd/yyyy is a date 'display' format and the values in Excel are dates, no? If they are dates there than you could simply use OLEDB or ODBC connection to excel and lose nothing.
I didn't understand what you are trying to convert from - to.

PS: In Excel date values are kept as numbers behind the scenes.
Cetin