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
    2015-05-18T21:42:51+00:00

    What is your version of Excel?

    Did the Style dialog box look like below, when you were finished?

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-05-18T18:38:45+00:00

    One thing I forgot to inform you that I tried to change the format via cell styles.

    I mean I right clicked on cell styles and click on modify and then clicked on format and then clicked on general and then saved the same. but then I closed and reopened the file, but the issue was still the same.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-05-18T18:34:43+00:00

    so let me try to put this right. I hope you can now understand the issue and can guide us how to fix this.

    Suppose I have data of 150 number. I have that in excel file. now I need to copy and paste that data to a new excel file. So I opened a new excel file and copied the data from old excel file and pasted the same in new file (now the old excel file have the cell format as general, and in new excel file the cells by default are formatted as general). but when I paste the data in new excel file, they all changes to date format. I need this to stop.

    just to elaborate this more, in new excel file, I changed the cell format back to general, next time if I need to paste the data in the same cells, it will change back to date format again.

    now if you have understood the issue, please help me with solution. and if you have now understood the issue, please write me on <email address is removed for privacy> will show you the excel file and the error as well

    Regards

    Vishal Walia

    ***Personal information deleted by the moderator. Please see the Microsoft Community Frequently Asked Questions for more information on how you can protect your privacy.***

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