Time To Change

User537843 

In Excel for Mac, the behavior you are encountering where it automatically converts "7 AM" into "7:00:00" is due to Excel recognizing your input as a time format. If you want to prevent Excel from automatically formatting your input as a time, you can follow these steps:

1. Open Excel on your Mac.
2. Click on "Excel" in the top menu bar (next to the Apple logo).
3. Select "Preferences."
4. In the Preferences window, select "Edit."
5. Under the "Editing options" section, uncheck the option that says "Automatically insert a decimal point."
6. Click the "OK" button to save your changes.

Now, when you type "7 AM" or similar text, Excel should no longer automatically convert it into a time format. This change should prevent Excel from interpreting your input as a time and displaying it as "7:00:00". The text and steps were edited with the help of AI.

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User537843 

The behavior you're experiencing where Excel automatically converts "7 AM" to "7:00:00" is because Excel is trying to interpret the input as a time value. To prevent this automatic conversion, you can do one of the following:

1. Precede the Text with an Apostrophe ('): By typing '7 AM (with the apostrophe before the number), Excel will treat the entire entry as text and not attempt to convert it to a date or time format.

2. Format the Cell as Text: Before entering the text, you can format the cell as "Text." To do this:

   • Select the cell where you want to enter "7 AM."
   • Go to the "Home" tab in the Excel ribbon.
   • In the "Number" group, click the drop-down arrow in the "Number Format" box.
   • Select "Text" from the list of number formats.
   • Now, when you type "7 AM" in the cell, Excel will treat it as text and won't auto-convert it.

These methods will prevent Excel from automatically interpreting your input as a time value.