Formatting an Entire Column to Show Years

• 1). Right-click on the top heading of the column of cells that you wish to display years in and select "Format Cells" from the contextual menu. The "Format Cells" dialog box will appear.
  
  
• 2). Select "Custom" from the "Category" panel on the left side of the dialog window to bring up the custom formatting tab.
  
  
• 3). Type "yyyy;@" without the quotation marks into the "Type" box in the custom formatting tab.
  
  
• 4). Click the "Close" button. Now whenever you enter a full date into a cell in this column, only the year will be displayed.
  
  

Creating Cells to Display the Years from a Column of Dates

• 1). Click on a cell to select it. If you are making an entire set of cells display years, ensure that there are enough blank cells below to store the entire set.
  
  
• 2). Type "=YEAR(CELL)" without the quotation marks and replace "CELL" with the cell that you wish to display the year from. For example, "=YEAR(A1)" will display the year from the date stored in cell A1 of the spreadsheet.
  
  
• 3). Hover the mouse pointer over the bottom right corner of the new cell until it becomes a crosshair, then click and drag the box downward to create a set of cells. The formulas in the new cells will update automatically to include the correct locations of cells that the years are being extracted from. Make the set of cells as big or small as required.