Stop auto correction of number into a date

Anonymous
2010-04-09T11:08:55+00:00

When i work with excel, i do data entry, some of the numbers that i type in can be interpenetrated  as dates. when this happens excel automatically changes the format of the cell from general, to date. i want to be able to stop this auto correction.

I know there are a number of ways to avoid this happening, but i am fed up with these methods. i simply what to turn the auto correct off, so that instead of what i type into the cell changing, what i type into the cell shows exactly what i typed in.

really hope there is someone out the who knows how to do this.

thanks

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2010-04-09T17:09:58+00:00

If you format the cells as Text, all entries will be entered as text

(leading zeroes will be retain, date-like values won't be converted to dates, etc)

...CTRL+1 (to view the formatting dialog window)

...Select: Number_tab...Category: Text

That should resolve most (but not all) of the problem.

Does that work for you?

Ron Coderre

Microsoft MVP - Excel (2006 - 2010)

P.S. If any post answers your question, please mark it as the Answer (so it won't keep showing as an open item.)

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Anonymous
2010-04-09T16:55:47+00:00

Tim

I understand your frustration but this is not an autocorrect issue. 

Typing in 1/5 will automatically be recognised as a date as that is what it is unless... you signify that it is a formula and you expect the answer 0.2 to appear or it is a text item in which case you must preceed the data with a ' apostrophy.

In signifying the that the item is text you will have a data item which is left aligned, as all text is by default.  All other items in this column (even if purely numeric such as product codes) should aligned left.  Product codes though numeric should never be treaded like numbers, if you do, then expect issues.  Telephone numbers are similarly not true numbers, if they were treated as such, leading zeros would be dropped.

Though the whole idea of having to type in that extra character of ' is a pain to remember, it will make your data more acurate, reliable and portable.

Pat PS If you found this useful please vote. Thank you:¬)

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-11-30T20:03:34+00:00

    Since this question was never officially answered, I will ask it again:

    Is there a way to turn off the auto-formatting "feature" in which Excel automatically changes anything that it thinks looks like a date into a date (registry hack, software patch, ANYTHING).

    No there isn't a way.

    >3/88 is NOT a date.

    It is as far as Excel is concerned albeit quite a long way in the future.

    If this post answers your question, please mark it as the Answer.

    Mike H

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-11-30T19:54:17+00:00

    So let me get this straight.  Instead of coming out and stating the answer ("No, you can't simply turn the auto correct off"), you avoid answering the question, and state 1) How he is wrong for even wanting to do it in the first place, and that despite the inconvenience, Microsoft knows better then him and is forcing him to use workarounds, and 2) How to implement these workarounds, despite the fact that he clearly states in his question that he knows of them already.

    3/88 is NOT a date!  (Excel changes it to 3/1/88)  If you want to get technical about it, 1/4 is not a date either (nor a number), its a text string.  It is inconsistent to change 11/4 into  4-Nov (11/4/2010) while 111/4 remains unchanged.  What's the difference between those two text strings?  One character.  It is simple arrogance to assume that because a text string fits into a common format, that it must be interpreted as that format WITHOUT GIVING THE SIMPLE OPTION OF TURNING THIS AUTO-FORMATING OFF!  It is frustrating that this happens.  It is even more frustrating to know that it is trivially simple to include this as an option, and the reason that this was never included as an option is pure arrogance.

    Since this question was never officially answered, I will ask it again:

    Is there a way to turn off the auto-formatting "feature" in which Excel automatically changes anything that it thinks looks like a date into a date (registry hack, software patch, ANYTHING).

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