formatting cells

[Guest]

everytime I enter a 1-19 in a cell, it defaults to jan-19. I then go to the
cell right-click, formatting cells and select General and it gives me a
number 39009. I try again while General is selected and it still defaults to
Date. How can I have set as General number by default

I use excel 2000

 

[Guest]

Depending on what other things you are typing in those cells you could
highlight the range of cells you will be entering data into and format them
as 'text'. That will make sure your 1-19 shows up.

 

[Doug Kanter]

everytime I enter a 1-19 in a cell, it defaults to jan-19. I then go to
the
cell right-click, formatting cells and select General and it gives me a
number 39009. I try again while General is selected and it still defaults
to
Date. How can I have set as General number by default

I use excel 2000

With a number like that, Excel's probably going to pull that stunt unless
you format the cell as text, which forces Excel to accept what you type
without it trying the "help". Be aware, though, that formatting a messed up
cell as text sometimes doesn't work. You sometimes have to format it before
it's been used, and then enter the data.