Forum Discussion
Cell format for numbers
I have a column where I want to reference lines from a deposition transcript. However, each time I type in a number combination with a hyphen that could be a date, it changes it to the short date. In other words, 1-3 becomes 3-Jan. That is with the number formatting on General. If I have it on Number, the 1-3 changes to a 5 digit number with two decimal points. I can't figure out what to do and just went through this and had to remember to type 1 to 3, instead of the simpler 1-3.
2 Replies
Just out of curiosity, why are you using Excel for this, instead of, say, Word? Assuming you're writing a fair amount of text connected with these references to the deposition transcripts, you could even more easily use a table in Word....with no limits to the amount of text in a given "cell"
First highlight the column in which you're making these entries (or the whole workbook, if the cells are randomly located, and all you're entering is text.
Then, on the "Home" toolbar, go to the format box and select "Text" for the column where you'll be making these entries. ( I am assuming that you are NOT expecting to do any calculations with them; that they really are just text in the form of numerals)
In the image below, I'd already done that with column A, and had no trouble entering those numbers you see as text, formatted as you desire.
