HTML export to excel - date format issue

Question

Hi,

I have an html exported to excel. All is well.

However... there's a little problem.
I have a date in dd-MMM-yyyy format ( 27-Jan-2009 ) in a file called test.xls.

This test.xls, when opened in Excel 2002, it displays my date format correctly as 27-Jan-2009. But in Excel 2003, it displays my date format as 27-Jan-09. wahh!!! As far as I'm concerned this has nothing to do with the Regional Settings.

It's a matter of how excel interprets 27-Jan-2009. If you type 27-Jan-2009 in a cell in Excel 2003, it changes the format to Category "Custom" and type "d-MMM-yy" = 27-Jan-09.

But in Excel 2002, it stays the same.
I need to retain the format d-MMM-yyyy when opened in any Excel version.

Basically I need excel interpret 27-Jan-2009 as 27-Jan-2009 when entered in a cell. Is there some configurations I could do in excel to accomplish this? Could I specify in Excel that whenever a user inputs a date in format 27-Jan-2009, it will retain that format?

This needs to be a one time operation. Or the clients will get mad. hehehe. If only the client is willing to modify all date fields to the correct format = )) hehehe.

Thanks.