CFCONTENT (Excel) and data formatting problem

[ilovetorun]

Hey all,

I'm using CFCONTENT to return an Excel spreadsheet to the user. However, some of the data which becomes the Excel file is either 1) Numeric, or 2) Date-masked. The problem is, that Excel is too smart for its own good, and displays the data in ways which are different than what the browser displays.

For instance, I have a part number which is 01-6583. This is just a text string, but Excel transforms that into a number (however many days 1/1/6853 is after 1/1/1900) and then date-formats it as 01-83. Problem is, copying the data from Excel doesn't yield the correct data, which is 01-6583.

I have a similar problem with numbers. I have a part number of 9872176383, and Excel decides to display that as 9.87e9. This is, needless to say, confusing for my users.

Have any of you found a way to force Excel to take all data as text, and not try to format it 'intelligently'?

Thanks!

ilovetorun

 

[army001]

Hmm, this more of a microsoft office question. But i think i can help. In Excel 2000 and up you can tell excel to store as text or as a converting field to text and double clicking the field. This will give you a pop-up marker next to it to allow you different options for that data. Not sure if its the same for earlier versions.

-jason