Excel changing my data

[acraddoc]

this is driving me crazy Whenever I type something into a
cell such as 3-04 excel thinks I want this as a date and
changes it mar-04 . This isnt what I want I just want the
numbers 3-04 to show up. I figured out how to change it
for each individual cell but im not going to keep doing
that.

Is there anyway I can change this autochange ooption off?

I already tried tools>autocorrect turned everything off
in that but its still happening.

Please help me!

 

[JE McGimpsey]

You can't change the way XL's parser interprets and entry of 3-04, but
there are a couple of ways you can bypass it:

- Preformat the cell as Text - the parser doesn't interpret entries
in cells formatted as Text.

- Prefix the entry with an apostrophe, e.g., '3-04. The apostrophe
won't be displayed in the cell, but will tell the parser to ignore what
comes after it.

 

[Bernard Liengme]

Two ways:
1) format the range as text before you type in 3-04
2) type '3-04 note the leading apostrophe


best wishes

 

[acraddoc]

Thanks guys I will try that 2nd option

-----Original Message-----
Two ways:
1) format the range as text before you type in 3-04
2) type '3-04 note the leading apostrophe


best wishes

--
Bernard Liengme
www.stfx.ca/people/bliengme
remove CAPS in e-mail address





.

 

[Guest]

This is without a doubt the stupidest "feature" of a
program I have encountered in a while. Enter in a
straight number, and if it goes on too long it will change
it to scientific. Change the field to "Number" and if it
goes on too long, it rounds it for you. Didnt MS ever
thing that if you were using number to perform
calculations that you might actually need to
add/generate/produce long numbers on occaision? Wouldnt
accuracy be needed in such an instance? If I wanted to
know what ballpark figure I was looking at, I wouldnt need
to add it with a machine, I could eyeball it. Yours is
just another example of lazy programming and Microsofts
tendency to want to tell the users how to do their work,
rather than be a tool to aid the users in the work they
are given.

And yes.. you can change a long number to text, and re
enter it... and it will display the number. But you cant
do anything with that number. The program thinks youre
trying to add a + q.......

 

[Gord Dibben]

Thank you for your input.

Gord Dibben Excel MVP

This is without a doubt the stupidest "feature" of a
program I have encountered in a while. Enter in a
straight number, and if it goes on too long it will change
it to scientific. Change the field to "Number" and if it
goes on too long, it rounds it for you. Didnt MS ever
thing that if you were using number to perform
calculations that you might actually need to
add/generate/produce long numbers on occaision? Wouldnt
accuracy be needed in such an instance? If I wanted to
know what ballpark figure I was looking at, I wouldnt need
to add it with a machine, I could eyeball it. Yours is
just another example of lazy programming and Microsofts
tendency to want to tell the users how to do their work,
rather than be a tool to aid the users in the work they
are given.

And yes.. you can change a long number to text, and re
enter it... and it will display the number. But you cant
do anything with that number. The program thinks youre
trying to add a + q.......

 

[dvinds]

That anoys me Too.
I usually just press the space bar before writing the numbers.
eg: [space] 3-0