Let's say you want to graph your golf scores by date so you get a line chart that shows your improvement over a period of time. You might enter the information like so:
1-1-96 98
2-3-96 96
2-14-96 95
When you chart this range of cells you will get unexpected results. Your dates will not be points on the X-axis but instead will be represented on the Y-axis as impossible dates.
The workaround is to make the dates into text values. Simply enclose the dates with quotes and preceded them with an equals sign: ="1/1/96" so that the numbers are considered text by ClarisWorks:
="1-1-96" 98
="2-3-96" 96
="2-14-96" 95
Note: The dates will not display with the equal sign or the quotes.