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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
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.)

Was this answer helpful?

60+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
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:¬)

Was this answer helpful?

40+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

311 additional answers

Sort by: Oldest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2013-10-09T16:38:10+00:00

    I'm on TerryTyson's side with this one.  "1/5" is NOT a date as it does not contain sufficient information.  You are correct that Excel interprets it as a date, but this does not make it a date (unless you're starting from the premise that whatever excel does is by definition correct).

    And if your example regarding hours is correct, then why does excel interpret "1/24" as "January 24, 2013"?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2013-10-09T16:46:16+00:00

    But they do affect the operation of text-to-columns

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2013-10-17T13:48:05+00:00

    I am in complete agreement with your frustration.  I pull data from our main system into a CSV file.  This populates part codes with the leading apostrophe.  I use text to columns to remove the apostrophe so that I can then use the data in the files to interact with each other using VLOOKUPS (this feature does not work with the leading apostrophe in my experience).  If I remove the apostrophe from the part codes so that I can use VLOOKUP, some get turned into dates, EVEN if I already have the column formatted as TEXT ONLY.  The perception of date by excel overrides the text only formatting that I have in the column.  I then have to go to that individual cell, reformat as text only again, and manually re-key the correct part number in the cell.  This takes an enormous amount of time when working with very large files and also leaves lots of room for keying mistakes.  And I also completely agree that this thread is four years old, and nothing has been done to address it when clearly it causes frustration for many users working in business environments.  Microsoft, please hear our cries and create a way to easily disable this feature when working with certain files.  Just a simple little check box, surely is an easy fix for your programming geniuses. Please!!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments