Excel automatically changes numbers like1989to19.89 why? Help!

[Trossemiches]

I use excel quite a bit. It has always been great, but recently, and without
any intervantion on my part, in excel 2007 the numbers I type are
automatically changed from say 1989 to 19.89. It seems only to allow two
digit numbers and puts all extra numbers after the the decimal point - e.g
27898, is changed to 27.898. This is really a pain!!

I have not made changes to the default format and cannot find a way to put
it back to keeping the numbers the same as they are when I type them in. I
can change the numbers by turning them into text and then back into numbers,
but it is ridiculous to have to keep on doing this!

Much of my work includes examining historical data - including year dates -
so changing 2009 to 20.09 is not very helpful!!

Can anyone help solve this problem?

 

[Dan]

You need to access Excel options.

Click on the icon in the top left-hand corner of excel. At the very bottom
select 'Excel Options'.

Then select 'Advanced'.

Second option down is the 'Automatically insert decimal point' option. Make
sure this option is not selected.

Dan