Forum Discussion
Number format in Excel
Hello, I have an excel file with a large number of cells where the number format needs to be 4-1, 4-2, 4-3, ect. Every cell is a different number so I need to manually create a "custom" number format. When I put that number in a cell, it thinks is a "date" format, i.e April 1st. Then I have to manually change every single cell by creating a special format to each one of them based on the actual number. How can a copy a format from one cell to multiple cells, but the number be different? I have other numbers like 5-X, 6-X, and so on. I need to create a number format and make that cell stay with it. Thank you in advance.
mitchell2425 Format those cells as text.
Alternatively, Excel 365 has an option (File, Options, Data tab) to stop interpreting dates during data entry. Uncheck this box:Thank you for the response, but I tried both options to no avail. When I select the "text" format, it takes my number, i.e 6-1 and it returns "45444". I went to Excel options, de-selected the option you told me and it does the same. I can't imagine in Excel I can just set up a totally freeform format to do what I need. See image below with the cells I need to be able to have freeform text.
- Correction. I used text and was able to do it.
