My PayPal reports (downloaded files) contain non-standard date format and it's difficult to prepare tax returns because the reports can't be sorted properly. To start with, PayPal exports data only in "text" mode (all numeric fields have a " ' " (apostrophe) prepended to each number, which blocks spreadsheets from reading the number. When the apostrophe is removed, the data becomes text which can be fixed - except for calendar dates which now can't be read by any spreadsheet package. How can I fix the dates in my PayPal reports so they can be read by a standard spreadsheet?
