Does not recognize a "contains match" in Excel files

I've worked on this problem for quite some time but all my efforts were in vain. And I've read over the contains match criteria in the support files and forums and have not found the answer.

As the title says, I'm trying to set match criteria within an Excel file. Specifically trying to find the date, but I can not even match text, so it's probably something peculiar about my excel files.

This is how the date appears in the file "From Apr 01, 2023 to Apr 30, 2023 for all employees from all locations"

I've tried to auto match date, use "LetterLetterLetter digitdigit, digitdigitdigit" and even tried a variation of "anything". Still can't get a match. Also tried to match the year only, because that's what I really need to sort these files into sub-folders by year.

Tried to insert image files, but can't figure that out either.... :roll:

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated! Can't begin to tell you how much time Hazel has saved me! I'd be happy to set up a dummy file to send if you'd like.

Excel files are not text files, but instead a proprietary format, so Hazel cannot read them. If you convert them to csv or some other text based format, Hazel should be able to match against them then.