http://ask.metafilter.com/tags/autoformatting Questions tagged with 'autoformatting' at Ask MetaFilter. Thu, 28 Sep 2006 07:20:46 -0800 Thu, 28 Sep 2006 07:20:46 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://ask.metafilter.com/47474/How%2Ddo%2DI%2DCOMPLETELY%2Dturn%2Doff%2DExcel%2Dautoformatting How do I completely turn off all autoformatting in Excel? Excel's autoformatting is driving me insane. At work I have to enter lots of ranges into Excel, such as "10-50". Excel helpfully thinks I actually mean "1st of October, 1950", and changes the cell to "Oct-50". Of course, changing the cell format away from Date merely changes the cell value to "18537". So not only does Excel automatically change the format away from what you entered, it <i><a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2004/07/18/genetic_research_irr.html">irreversibly changes the actual data as well</a></i>.<br> <br> I know that changing the cell format to Text beforehand will stop any autoformatting, but remembering to do this every time I enter data is incredibly frustrating (and I have other autoformatting issues aside from the date one). Is there a way to <i>completely deactivate</i> autoformatting?<br> <br> The most annoying thing is that if I make a mistake and enter "10-49" into lots of cells instead of "10-50", and then try and correct all the cells with Find &amp; Replace, <b>it changes the cells back to Dates even if I've previously set them all as Text!</b> tag:ask.metafilter.com,2006:site.47474 Thu, 28 Sep 2006 07:20:46 -0800 autoformatting dates dieautoformattingdie excel EndsOfInvention