Stopping automatic change to date format

[Matthew McManus]

I have previously posted on this topic and received some good answers
thanks for that.

My problem was a little more complicated than I realised.

When I enter data such as "1-7", I wish to retain it in the genera
format, wheras Excel changes the format of the cell to date format
Then if I change the value to "20" (say), Excel then converts that t
date format.

It was suggested that I change the format to Custom: d-m, which wil
keep the data visible as "1-7", but the same problem arises - if th
data entry is changed to "20", it converts to a date.

I need to retain the format so that it can be read as a number.
specific number format is no good as I need to enter both whole number
and decimals and I need the actual entry to be visible. That is, if
enter 0.03, I need to keep that visible as "0.03", but if I enter "10"
I can't have that change to "10.00".

Entering an apostrophe before the data is not an option for me.

Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks

Matthe

 

[BrianB]

The only way to do what you want is to format the cells as text *before
entering the values

 

[Guest]

print ' before the number like '1-7 it will be o