Dates are STORED in the three field vague date format.

Dates are REPORTED in the 'grid' in an output format that reads the three fields and produces a text string according to the rules of the input fields.

This can be exported to excel as it stands.

When you export to other formats - the field title 'Vague_date_start' is used to reference the date.
This troubled me as I thought that perhaps only the V_D_S was being used, and I hadnt noticed.

Tests subsequently reveal that all would seem to be well and the date field is indeed exported as read.
EXCEPT in shapefiles - when the date goes out as start date only.

SO... if the reference to the date field during the export process could stop referring to VAGUE_DATE_START and start referring to DATE, that might be a good thing.
AND if the export to shapefile could be tweaked to export the text date rather than (as well as..) the start date, that would also be good.

M