can't keep 1-1 from becoming Jan-1, it isnt a date

[Guest]

I am really sick of excel turning everything that might look like a date into
one

Please make it easy to figure out how to turn it or every autoformatting
thing off completely until user turns it back on or hits a reset. I spent 2
hours searching all the help on Microsoft only to be told how to change how
the date appeared, when i change the jan-1 back into a "general number" i
dont get 1-1, i get 38594 or something. When I re-enter "1-1" after
supposedly formating it to "general" it turns right back in to a date again.

How do i turn the autocorrecting of scores (1-1) into dates (Jan-1) off???

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[Gord Dibben]

Pre-format the cells as Text or preface your score with an apostrophe.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Guest]

format the cell(s) as text or precede the 1-1 with a ' as in '1-1

 

[SteveW]

There are two replies with the correct answer.

But the clue to this is to think about the data you have before you type
it in.

1-1 is not a number, yes it might be annoying that it gets treated as a
date.
But it's just plain text so enter it as such '1-1

More people are grateful that dates are easy to type in - it really would
be a pain
for everybody if every date for this year had to be typed in full
1/2/2006 ! just 1/2 or 1-2 is a lot quicker.

General format is a basic style for numbers ie no currency or commas,
fixed decimals etc etc

Steve

 

[Guest]

Thanks - very helpful right away!

There are two replies with the correct answer.

But the clue to this is to think about the data you have before you type
it in.

1-1 is not a number, yes it might be annoying that it gets treated as a
date.
But it's just plain text so enter it as such '1-1

More people are grateful that dates are easy to type in - it really would
be a pain
for everybody if every date for this year had to be typed in full
1/2/2006 ! just 1/2 or 1-2 is a lot quicker.

General format is a basic style for numbers ie no currency or commas,
fixed decimals etc etc

Steve