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
    2014-05-07T20:28:54+00:00

    Hi Paul

    Yes, isn't it wonderful!  And such excellent feedback from Microsoft (ms).

    I guess 12/11/1925 (a date) is 9477 days (or perhaps 9476) from the start of time, according to ms.  That puts it around 1900.  Could it be that the 1/5 put Excel into a mode of expecting everything to be a date?

    > I really fail to understand how one might use the SUM() function.

    It's pretty useless for summing numbers: =sum(1+2) is the same as =1+2 but longer.

    Where it helps is with ranges.  Try =sum(a1:b10) for all the cells in a block or =sum(a:a) for everything in column A.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-05-07T18:14:46+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,that despite the inconvenience, Microsoft knows better then him and is forcing him to use workarounds, and

    A hostile tone will not endear you to others with in the community. Whilst emotive rants may have their place in other parts of the Internet they provide little in the way of motivation for others to join in and share their experience in my humble opinion. As a matter of interest, within earlier versions of Excel Tools -> Options ->Transition ->check

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

     I have to disagree that a hostile tone will not endear you ... Considering that hostile tone got a lot more votes than your non-answer did.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-05-07T18:08:19+00:00

    I could understand if I were trying to use 1/5 as a number, but that isn't a number. 9477 IS a number, and Excel automagically decides that what I really meant was 12/11/1925. In the case of numbers being used as numbers (I know it's crazy there are still people out there who use such arcane devices) I really fail to understand how one might use the SUM() function.

    How is this a design feature, and how can it possibly be justified?

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