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
    2013-11-25T18:00:55+00:00

    I have since found for my purpose, that using the "Text to Columns" feature in the Data tab does work for me to remove the apostrophe and retain the data integrity of the product numbers by formatting the entire column to Text.  However, often times this in turn jacks with my VLOOKUP by not recognizing the item and returning a blank cell.  If you search fixes for this, the answer is to use the General format for VLOOKUPS.  However, once you have made the column Text format, even changing it back to General at that point does not correct the issue that I have with VLOOKUP and I continue to get a blank cell at that point.  And, all of this is alot of extra steps when ultimately it would be so much more user friendly to just be able to turn of the auto-date feature prior to starting my work with the spreadsheets in the first place.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-11-25T16:47:11+00:00

    it is not Norwegian Excel date format.  In 2003 you could work around this for all sheets and especially if you created a master sheet, so it always uploaded your features and not the MS defaults.

    Unfortuantely they screwed with this feature in 2007 and maintained the @#@%#@ 2010 and will probably defend themselves. 

    HELLO MICROSOFT I AM A POWER EXCELL USER AND I DO NOT CALCULATE OFF DATES FOR MY WORK, SO IT IS A TOTAL INCONVENIENCE FOR THE PROGRAM TO EVEN ASSUME I AM INPUTING A DATE. 

    The only two work arounds. cause us work:

    1. make a macro that defines every cell in a non-date format.   Then it is a double click to protect your sheets.   You probably should put all the other defaults over-rides as well (I like grid on and landscape and a different page size).  [I need numbers not strings or the program is worthless, so defining everything as a string is useless suggestion].
    2. import into preformatted sheets,  which is easier if you make the macro in 1)  
    3. KEEP TELLING MICROSOFT TO GET OFF THEIR MICROSOFT BUTTS AND ADD A SIMPLE OVER RIDE CHECK BOX TO PREVENTS DEFAULT DATE FORMATING and maybe someday they will listen to the customer.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-11-25T12:01:56+00:00

    If you want to use Excel, you will need to learn to work within its specifications.

    To prevent Excel from modifying your data, you will need to pre-format the cells as text.  If you are importing a file, however, you cannot just "open" the file.  You will need to ensure the Text to columns wizard opens before you import the file.  In order to do that, you will need to select "Get External Data / From Text" under the Data Ribbon.

    This behavior has been present in Excel for many versions, at least in the US version.  I cannot explain your observations regarding the Norwegian version.

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