Auto-format in Microsoft Excel.

[Paul Clark]

Each time i try to enter a number range, for example, 8-
10, in Excel, it constantly re-formats it to a date. If I
change the formatting to "General" it turns it into a
random number, usually 38209. I would like to turn off
ALL auto-formatting, but that's probably asking too
much. How do I disable this frustrating feature?

thanks.

 

[William]

Hi Paul

When you enter "8-10" in a cell, that's not strictly a number but Excel
thinks you mean a date so converts it as such.

A date is a number and in your example the number 38209 represents August 10
2004 which is not a random number.

If you precede 8-10 with a (ignore inverted commas) " ' " then the so-called
number will be interpreted by Excel as text and will appear as you want but
this may have implications if you are trying to use that cell in some kind
of formula / calculation.

--
XL2002
Regards

William

(e-mail address removed)

| Each time i try to enter a number range, for example, 8-
| 10, in Excel, it constantly re-formats it to a date. If I
| change the formatting to "General" it turns it into a
| random number, usually 38209. I would like to turn off
| ALL auto-formatting, but that's probably asking too
| much. How do I disable this frustrating feature?
|
| thanks.
|
|

 

[Guest]

If the numbers are refences only then try formatting them as text.