Unwanted data conversion in cells

[Guest]

I use Excel for only the simplist tasks. There is a reason my business name
is Wordsmith, not Numbersmith.

One of the things I use it (Excel 2007) for is a simple spreadsheet with
work done, date, and time spent in three columns. The date column has become
a problem. I key in 7/5/2007, and it taken to converting this to just Jul-07.
I need it to stay the way I keyed it and do not understand why it has started
making this unwanted conversion. I can't get it to hold by typing in the date
in text, ie, July 5, 2007. It makes the same conversion. How do I get it to
stop deciding it knows better what I want than I do?

I have been using this spreadsheet for several months, starting in version
2003. I save it as a 97-03 compatible file because I send it to a client at
the end of each month.

This feature of the program deciding it knows best is not helpful. I need to
see the day as well as month and year, and that is what I type. All I want is
for Excel to leave what I type alone. So far as I know, I have not told it to
do anything differently. It just started with this month's spreadsheet, and I
don't even know what this kind of conversion is called or why anyone would
ever want such a thing.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Pete_UK]

You can pre-format the cells the way you want them. Click on a cell in
your date column, hold the <shift> key down and press <page down> a
few times to highlight as many cells as you think you might need, then
release the <shift> key. (Or, you could just click on the column
identifier letter at the top of the column to highlight the entire
column of cells).

With these cells highlighted, click on Format | Cells | Custom and in
the small panel type the format you require - mm/dd/yyyy. Then click
OK and from now on all the cells will display in this format.

Hope this helps.

Pete

 

[Stan Brown]

Thu, 5 Jul 2007 09:02:04 -0700 from WordsmithDan

I use Excel for only the simplist tasks. There is a reason my
business name is Wordsmith, not Numbersmith.

You might want to start using a spell checker, if you're going to
boast of your English abilities.

One of the things I use it (Excel 2007) for is a simple spreadsheet
with work done, date, and time spent in three columns. The date
column has become a problem. I key in 7/5/2007, and it taken to
converting this to just Jul-07. I need it to stay the way I keyed
it and do not understand why it has started making this unwanted
conversion. I can't get it to hold by typing in the date in text,
ie, July 5, 2007. It makes the same conversion. How do I get it to
stop deciding it knows better what I want than I do?

Are the dates going to be used in any calculations? If not, the
easiest thing to do is format those cells as text before you type
anything into them.

Second easiest is to type a single quote (') before each date. It
will show in the formula bar but not in the worksheet.

Most versatile is to format the cells with the custom format
m/d/yyyy.