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
    2014-02-05T18:40:10+00:00

    Andrew - re international phone number of: "=43-662-88906141". 

    Salzburg, Austria numbers are +43 662 xxxxx

    Is the 141 an extension or do you have too many digits?

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-02-05T17:51:35+00:00

    I agree with Kevin.  I work for a company that uses excel exports from varous systems and imports them into warehouse or feeds data downstream.  This data typically exceeds 10,000 rows of pre-validated cells.  Excel continually transforms data causing corruption issues that can take hours to identify and longer to correct.  I am frustrated as many others and must work to change the existing business processes to csv format and create policies that the data is NEVER to be opened and saved with this data corrupting tool.  I am currently having an issue with an international phone number of: "=43-662-88906141".  And cell by cell formatting is not an option when processing 50 files / day with 70 columns.  The import should take 10 minutes, but the formatting issues create hours and hours of un-needed effort.

     

    I like excel and use it frequently, but it is not a corporate tool, it is a more for personal use.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-01-22T11:03:57+00:00

    I definitely agree with MikeWhoCares... .

    I spent hours trying to bypass this Microsoft auto-correction. More than that, I notices that sometimes the behavior is different between Excel versions. And it don't happen only for dates bu for time as well.  I write programs that generate excel spreadsheets in csv format, because this is the simplest format that should not change any data in my sheet. Microsoft must give an option of disabling this feature without having to make any manipulation in the data. I know all the tricks, such as adding (') apostrophes at the beginning of the string, or wrapping it with ="..." etc... But most of the time I don't want anything to interfere and change my data. The behavior may be different when entering data interactively or opening existing csv files.

    Anyway, looking at this thread, we can see the amount of people that complaints about this issue. Look also at the votes ! What else can we do to convince Microsoft to add the option of disabling this annoying feature.

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