How to disable date auto-format in Excel 2007 1

[ixodid]

I've spent almost one hour trying to solve this issue:

I am typing "5-8" into a cell in Excel 2007 and the ever-so-helpful Micro#### turns it into "8-May" - I want it to be just what I typed in - "5-8"

I've gone to Options>Proofing>Auto correct options and tried just about everything to no avail.

Web searches have been no help (most discussions involve users pasting data into cells).

Please tell me how I can disable this feature.

 

[papadba]

Select the cell/column, right-click and use Format Cells, and change to the text category rather than general may do what you want.

 

[SkipVought]

Also read faq68-5827 to understand why.

Skip,
[sub]
Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE![/sub]

 

[Deniall]

To force the entry to be treated as a text string, precede it with a single-quote character. Thus enter
>'5-8<
instead of
>5-8<

 

[mscallisto]

Deniall

So one should be able to use the following:

=IF(B1="5-8","Yes","No")

and not

=IF(B1="'5-8","Yes","No")

 

[Deniall]

Correct.
(Try it yourself.)