D1 =date(2002,1,1) =date(2002,1,4) =date(2002,4,1)selected all of it, copy
D1 01 January 2002 04 January 2002 01 April 2002I think changing the output of your dates in the text file from (say) 01/05/2003 to =date(2003,05,01) (the equal sign tells excel that a formula is coming) should solve your date problem