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
    2014-10-06T11:43:24+00:00

    Your requirements remain unclear to me.

    You wrote that you wanted to preserve the data that is physically held in there 

    To repeat what I wrote previously, the data that is physically held in there IS41911.37083

    Removing the formatting shows that value and will output it to a CSV file.

    The date you see when you click on the formula bar, when you have selected a date formatted cell, is not necessarily the data that is physically held in there

    Perhaps you do NOT want to output to the CSV file the data that is physically held in there,

    What, exactly, do you want to output to the CSV file, when the data physically held in a cell IS 41911.37083?

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-10-06T09:15:28+00:00

    Ok, I think I need to explain this is really simple terms. I have no control over the spreadsheet that is produced. It is produced by another system; one that I don't have access to or any control whatsoever over. It is a spreadsheet. It is there. It is given to me AS IS. This part of the process is automated and I have to work with what that system spits out which is a spreadsheet.

    Does that clarify things?

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-10-04T11:59:55+00:00

    Yes, it's like a bug and just as bad; I think of it as poorly thought out product specification.  Microsoft needs to listen to its customers, the users.

    From Excel's perspective, if you want no formatting you get 41911.37083

    When you say "I want NO FORMATTING on that column. Nothing whatsoever." you want Excel to leave the formatting alone.  The easiest way to stop Excel changing the format is to make the column format Text.  BUT you have to avoid Excel's 'helpful???' behaviour by opening the file through the wizard, else it is too late.  See earlier relies on how to do this.

    Alternatively, if you are just loading a text file to another application you could change it to a CSV file without using Excel at all.

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