-------------------------------------
| 11/30/2010 (12/30/2010) |
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| 11/30/2010 |
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I'm seeing this a lot, it's a date field column and one cell is left
justified and the other is right justified. I think Excel is
automicallt thinking it's a date type and formatting for that but when
a field does not meet the date specs it formats it a different way -
just a guess.

How do I make a column generic text - just text? And, or how do I get
them all to the right or all to theft? I just want consistency.

thanks

Hi
If you type a apostrophe before your numbers, they will be seen has text and
line up to the left.
The apostrophe will not show, it's only telling XL that you want text.
HTH
John
"goldtech" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:284aaeef-7861-4e8f-af42-(E-Mail Removed)...
> -------------------------------------
> | 11/30/2010 (12/30/2010) |
> -------------------------------------
> | 11/30/2010 |
> -------------------------------------
>
> I'm seeing this a lot, it's a date field column and one cell is left
> justified and the other is right justified. I think Excel is
> automicallt thinking it's a date type and formatting for that but when
> a field does not meet the date specs it formats it a different way -
> just a guess.
>
> How do I make a column generic text - just text? And, or how do I get
> them all to the right or all to theft? I just want consistency.
>
> thanks

If the date is not a valid date, Excel will left-justify.

11/30/2010 (12/30/2010) is not a date

11/30/2010 is a date.

You could pre-format the column as Text or when making entries, preface the
entry with an apostrophe.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP


On Thu, 2 Dec 2010 20:39:45 -0800 (PST), goldtech <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>-------------------------------------
>| 11/30/2010 (12/30/2010) |
>-------------------------------------
>| 11/30/2010 |
>-------------------------------------
>
>I'm seeing this a lot, it's a date field column and one cell is left
>justified and the other is right justified. I think Excel is
>automicallt thinking it's a date type and formatting for that but when
>a field does not meet the date specs it formats it a different way -
>just a guess.
>
>How do I make a column generic text - just text? And, or how do I get
>them all to the right or all to theft? I just want consistency.
>
>thanks