excel automatically changing the 'format' of cells!!

[neowok]

i have a data table with 20 or so columns. near the end i have
columns which i formatted as custom "hh:mm". the 2 columns after thi
are whats causing the problem. In these 2 columns i need to type jus
a normal number. now before i fill in the time columns before these 2
the format of the cells in these 2 columns is general and when i type
number into them, it stays as i typed it.

However if i fill in the times in the columns to the left of these 2
and then stick my numbers into these 2 columns, excel decides it want
to make these 2 columns 'hh:mm' format like the 6 columns before it
which then changes the number i typed into these 2 columns int
"00:00". I then have to go back, do format cells on these 2 again
select general again, and the numbers i typed re-appear. If i the
change the numbers, it changes the bluddy format back to hh:mm.

I cant think of a single reason excel would automatically be changin
the format of cells going from left to right. It might make sense t
assume the format of cells in a table is the same from top to bottom
but it makes absolutely no sense to assume the format is the same fro
left to right, so why the hell would excel be automatically changin
the format of these cells like that?

ive never had it do anything like this before

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

In tools=>Options=>Edit tab, on the right top, try unselecting Extend list
formats and formulas and see if that stops the behavior.

 

[neowok]

nope its still doing it with that turned off.

in addition to that problem, i have 2 columns with formulas in and i
isnt automatically putting those formulas into the next row whe
something is entered there, even though in those 2 columns there are n
empty cells (but there are empty cells in other parts of the table, s
i guess this might be why?) and this is with extend list ON