Problem with analyzing Access data in Excel

We have a recurring problem when saving an MS Access file as an Excel spreadsheet. The date format does not transfer over into Excel, so we can't filter records by date. Even after using the "format cells" function in Excel, the filter still doesn't work. We are using Office 2000. I haven't been able to find a fix for this in the Help files.
Any tips?

You'll have be more specific. An Access "file" means an entire database (typically *.mdb). I will presume you mean exporting an Access TABLE to Excel. The first thing required is that the date field on the source table be actually formatted with the Date/Time data type -- you can't rely on simply typing dates into a text field. The second thing is to make sure your export is directly to an Excel file, rather than some intermediary format like a text file or even a CSV file. Click on your Access table, and from the Access menu, choose File | Export, then make sure the SAVE AS TYPE is Excel. Let me know if you still have problems.

Steve, thanks. You are right, I was referring to an Access table. Usually I use the "analyze with Excel" option on the Tools menu; have also tried the "save as" function and chosen Excel as the format. I did already check in Access, and the Date column was correctly formatted as date/time. The error message that appears when I open the saved table in Excel reads something like: "File error. Some number formats have been lost". I then reformat the columns as dates in Excel, but even after doing that the "filter" and "sort" commands still don't recognize them as dates. Any other ideas?

The "quick and dirty" way I usually get access tables into Excel is using copy/paste.

Open your Access table, and click the gray title bar all the way in the left (i.e. the square to the left of your first named field) -- this should select every row and every column in the table. Copy the table (right click and copy, or Ctrl-C), then open an Excel worksheet and click on the same square in the title bar (leftmost) to select every row and column. Then do a paste.

It will give you a message about the destination fields not being the same size and shape, but go ahead and click Yes to continue. The data should come over more or less cleanly, though you may have to change the formatting of any numeric values to "Number" instead of whatever it defaults to. Dates have always come through okay for me.

This works great in a pinch, once you get the hang of clicking the upper left corner to select the entire table/worksheet.

I like the answer MirrorShades gave. If that doesn't work, I don't have any more ideas to offer in the absence of seeing the table directly. If you still can't resolve it, send me (offline) a database containing just that table. If it works on another PC but not on yours, that might narrow it down to an Excel version/config problem.

Is there a particular reason why you are unable to perform your analysis in Access? There are a zillion built-in functions.