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How do I turn off excel auto formatting????

  • 21-04-2005 11:22am
    #1
    holmsey
    Closed Accounts Posts: 24 ✭


    Does anyone know how to turn off the auto formatting in excel?

    im using a web query that gets the names and odds of horses running at a certain racetrack from the paddy power website and puts them on a spreadsheet. But if a horse has odds of 8/1 for example, excel automatically changes this to 8-Jan (as it auto formats it to a date) which is of no use to me. i need it to be stored as text so i can retrieve it from a java program that im using.


Comments

  • #2
    Eoin
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,263 ✭✭✭✭Eoin


    holmsey wrote:
    Does anyone know how to turn off the auto formatting in excel?

    im using a web query that gets the names and odds of horses running at a certain racetrack from the paddy power website and puts them on a spreadsheet. But if a horse has odds of 8/1 for example, excel automatically changes this to 8-Jan (as it auto formats it to a date) which is of no use to me. i need it to be stored as text so i can retrieve it from a java program that im using.

    Hi, try putting each value in double quotes ("8/1") - I don't know if this will resolve your particular problem, but I have used it for dealing with values with Commas in them (screwing up CSV files), and for values with line feeds etc.

    Eoin


  • #3
    BizzyC
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,012 ✭✭✭BizzyC


    holmsey wrote:
    Does anyone know how to turn off the auto formatting in excel?

    im using a web query that gets the names and odds of horses running at a certain racetrack from the paddy power website and puts them on a spreadsheet. But if a horse has odds of 8/1 for example, excel automatically changes this to 8-Jan (as it auto formats it to a date) which is of no use to me. i need it to be stored as text so i can retrieve it from a java program that im using.

    Select the cells , right click, open format cells, and under the number tab set the cell type to text. Then it wont change a thing you enter.


  • #4
    Wolff
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,189 ✭✭✭Wolff


    if you format the spreadsheet to text first then copy down - should work for you

    or try Mrexcel.com

    Vgood website


  • #5
    Eoin
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,263 ✭✭✭✭Eoin


    BizzyC wrote:
    Select the cells , right click, open format cells, and under the number tab set the cell type to text. Then it wont change a thing you enter.

    How are you putting the values into the spreadsheet in the first place? If you are using some type of Excel API, then you might have control over the cell options, and you can change the settings like BizzyC has mentioned. If not, then just try quoting the values.


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