Excel 2003 trying to second guess my data types

[eti3nne]

Excel 2003 again....
I paste some dat into a blank spreadsheet. The data looks like 6s3 g7w 6e4 etc

It get shown as 6s3 g7w 6e+4.00000!

Another example ..

I paste in 0914 5678 and 914

I get 914 5678 and 914!

Excel 2003 does this never had it before with 2000/97. It seems to be trying to second guess my data types for me. Is there somewhere i can turn off this annoyance? Does this happen in Excel XP and will Office12 have this feature?

Any ideas?

Thanks for looking.

 

[bkpchs237]

eti3nne,
I have no idea what the next version might do. However, it seems from this and your other post that you are pasting information from a source that is not Excel. Information from other sources pasted into any program may have some difficulties. It seems that you are pasting in information that you desire to be text values. Try formatting your cells as Text first, then paste the information into the newly formatted cells.

Hope this helps.

 

[eti3nne]

Thanks bkpchs237,

I would largely agree with you. But the fresh data being pasted in is from exactly the same source just different data, from the same field. I have done this loads of times in 2000/97 but have never noticed a problem!

(I basically have an audit sheet set up ready for the months data to be compared, and i just re-use the same spreadsheet for the new month, so the data is very similar - and from the virtually identical query - just the month being different each time.)

 

[bkpchs237]

eti3nne,
In Excel 2003 under Tools, Options, there are some options that you can toggle for Showing Paste and Insert Options. Check these options, then when you paste something you will be given a drop-down next to it that will allow you to choose to preserve formatting among other choices. I am not at a machine that has that version presently so the names may not be exact, but the items do exist and are useful, if not annoying, from time to time.

Hope this helps.