option to prevent Excel changing 1-2-3 to a date

--
Vince

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...lic.excel.misc

Hi Vince,

Just precede your input with an apostrophe '
i.e. '1-2-3

The apostrophe forces your input to text format.
You can also preformat the cell(s) as text.

HTH
Martin

Hi Martin

Thank you for your reply.

In making my request to Microsoft, I gave details of why the change was
necessary. Unfortunately Microsoft did not provide any background details
to my request so here they a-

I am copying and pasting about eight fields of data at a time. Two of the
eight fields take the form of either a blank or two, three or four numbers
separated by - e.g. 3-4 or 10-7-20 or 15-1-24-2. The blank and the last
form are no problem but Excel changes the one dash and two dash forms to
dates. I can't include an apostrophe because I can’t change the data that I
am copying.

I have searched Excel in vain for everything automatic in the hope of
turning this feature off. I have tried every type of preformat and paste.
I have read just about every post on this discussion group and it has taken
many hours. There are other posters with similar problems. Heather can't
change her input data. Caen(?) is copying and pasting like me. A reply to
his post says this Excel feature can't be turned off.

One post suggests setting up of a text file to be read into Excel including
a dash, - , as a delimiter. I have set up a text file using Notepad and
read it into Excel including - as a delimiter. This works but because there
are 0 to 3 dashes in a text record entry, there are 1 to 4 columns in the
corresponding Excel record. This is a random effect and the resulting Excel
spreadsheet is a mess of overlapping columns.

The answer is quite simple. Excel should accept any sequence of characters
as typed or pasted unless requested to do otherwise. It is very simple for
a user to change 1-2-3 to a date but it is impossible to change that date to
1-2-3. All of the Excel features are intended to be helpful but it should
be possible to turn them on or turn them off.

I have tried everything that I can think of. If anyone has more ideas, I
will try them. Meanwhile I think this is a programming problem in Excel and
needs a programming solution.

Kind regards

Vince

P.S. This is my fourth attempt to post. I keep getting error messages
and lose posts that take ages to write. After the first failed attempt, I
started in writing in Word so that I can keep copying and attempting to post
until successful. I find this discussion group system very difficult to use
compared to other discussion groups.

--
Vince


"MartinW" wrote:

Hi Vince,

Just precede your input with an apostrophe '
i.e. '1-2-3

The apostrophe forces your input to text format.
You can also preformat the cell(s) as text.

HTH
Martin

Vince

Where are you pasting the data from?

--
HTH
Nick Hodge
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Southampton, England
www.nickhodge.co.uk
HIS


"Vince" wrote in message
...
Hi Martin

Thank you for your reply.

In making my request to Microsoft, I gave details of why the change was
necessary. Unfortunately Microsoft did not provide any background
details
to my request so here they a-

I am copying and pasting about eight fields of data at a time. Two of
the
eight fields take the form of either a blank or two, three or four numbers
separated by - e.g. 3-4 or 10-7-20 or 15-1-24-2. The blank and the last
form are no problem but Excel changes the one dash and two dash forms to
dates. I can't include an apostrophe because I can't change the data
that I
am copying.

I have searched Excel in vain for everything automatic in the hope of
turning this feature off. I have tried every type of preformat and
paste.
I have read just about every post on this discussion group and it has
taken
many hours. There are other posters with similar problems. Heather
can't
change her input data. Caen(?) is copying and pasting like me. A reply
to
his post says this Excel feature can't be turned off.

One post suggests setting up of a text file to be read into Excel
including
a dash, - , as a delimiter. I have set up a text file using Notepad and
read it into Excel including - as a delimiter. This works but because
there
are 0 to 3 dashes in a text record entry, there are 1 to 4 columns in the
corresponding Excel record. This is a random effect and the resulting
Excel
spreadsheet is a mess of overlapping columns.

The answer is quite simple. Excel should accept any sequence of
characters
as typed or pasted unless requested to do otherwise. It is very simple
for
a user to change 1-2-3 to a date but it is impossible to change that date
to
1-2-3. All of the Excel features are intended to be helpful but it
should
be possible to turn them on or turn them off.

I have tried everything that I can think of. If anyone has more ideas, I
will try them. Meanwhile I think this is a programming problem in Excel
and
needs a programming solution.

Kind regards

Vince

P.S. This is my fourth attempt to post. I keep getting error messages
and lose posts that take ages to write. After the first failed attempt,
I
started in writing in Word so that I can keep copying and attempting to
post
until successful. I find this discussion group system very difficult to
use
compared to other discussion groups.

--
Vince


"MartinW" wrote:

Hi Vince,

Just precede your input with an apostrophe '
i.e. '1-2-3

The apostrophe forces your input to text format.
You can also preformat the cell(s) as text.

HTH
Martin

Nick

http://www.tabonline.com.au/cgi-bin/main.pl?
Now the cat is out of the bag everyone will start a spreadsheet to beat the
racing system, lol.
--
Vince


"Nick Hodge" wrote:

Vince

Where are you pasting the data from?

--
HTH
Nick Hodge
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Southampton, England
www.nickhodge.co.uk
HIS


"Vince" wrote in message
...
Hi Martin

Thank you for your reply.

In making my request to Microsoft, I gave details of why the change was
necessary. Unfortunately Microsoft did not provide any background
details
to my request so here they a-

I am copying and pasting about eight fields of data at a time. Two of
the
eight fields take the form of either a blank or two, three or four numbers
separated by - e.g. 3-4 or 10-7-20 or 15-1-24-2. The blank and the last
form are no problem but Excel changes the one dash and two dash forms to
dates. I can't include an apostrophe because I can't change the data
that I
am copying.

I have searched Excel in vain for everything automatic in the hope of
turning this feature off. I have tried every type of preformat and
paste.
I have read just about every post on this discussion group and it has
taken
many hours. There are other posters with similar problems. Heather
can't
change her input data. Caen(?) is copying and pasting like me. A reply
to
his post says this Excel feature can't be turned off.

One post suggests setting up of a text file to be read into Excel
including
a dash, - , as a delimiter. I have set up a text file using Notepad and
read it into Excel including - as a delimiter. This works but because
there
are 0 to 3 dashes in a text record entry, there are 1 to 4 columns in the
corresponding Excel record. This is a random effect and the resulting
Excel
spreadsheet is a mess of overlapping columns.

The answer is quite simple. Excel should accept any sequence of
characters
as typed or pasted unless requested to do otherwise. It is very simple
for
a user to change 1-2-3 to a date but it is impossible to change that date
to
1-2-3. All of the Excel features are intended to be helpful but it
should
be possible to turn them on or turn them off.

I have tried everything that I can think of. If anyone has more ideas, I
will try them. Meanwhile I think this is a programming problem in Excel
and
needs a programming solution.

Kind regards

Vince

P.S. This is my fourth attempt to post. I keep getting error messages
and lose posts that take ages to write. After the first failed attempt,
I
started in writing in Word so that I can keep copying and attempting to
post
until successful. I find this discussion group system very difficult to
use
compared to other discussion groups.

--
Vince


"MartinW" wrote:

Hi Vince,

Just precede your input with an apostrophe '
i.e. '1-2-3

The apostrophe forces your input to text format.
You can also preformat the cell(s) as text.

HTH
Martin

Vince

These have commas for me? Am I missing something?

--
HTH
Nick Hodge
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Southampton, England
www.nickhodge.co.uk
HIS


"Vince" wrote in message
...
Nick

http://www.tabonline.com.au/cgi-bin/main.pl?
Now the cat is out of the bag everyone will start a spreadsheet to beat
the
racing system, lol.
--
Vince


"Nick Hodge" wrote:

Vince

Where are you pasting the data from?

--
HTH
Nick Hodge
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Southampton, England
www.nickhodge.co.uk
HIS


"Vince" wrote in message
...
Hi Martin

Thank you for your reply.

In making my request to Microsoft, I gave details of why the change was
necessary. Unfortunately Microsoft did not provide any background
details
to my request so here they a-

I am copying and pasting about eight fields of data at a time. Two of
the
eight fields take the form of either a blank or two, three or four
numbers
separated by - e.g. 3-4 or 10-7-20 or 15-1-24-2. The blank and the
last
form are no problem but Excel changes the one dash and two dash forms
to
dates. I can't include an apostrophe because I can't change the data
that I
am copying.

I have searched Excel in vain for everything automatic in the hope of
turning this feature off. I have tried every type of preformat and
paste.
I have read just about every post on this discussion group and it has
taken
many hours. There are other posters with similar problems. Heather
can't
change her input data. Caen(?) is copying and pasting like me. A
reply
to
his post says this Excel feature can't be turned off.

One post suggests setting up of a text file to be read into Excel
including
a dash, - , as a delimiter. I have set up a text file using Notepad
and
read it into Excel including - as a delimiter. This works but because
there
are 0 to 3 dashes in a text record entry, there are 1 to 4 columns in
the
corresponding Excel record. This is a random effect and the resulting
Excel
spreadsheet is a mess of overlapping columns.

The answer is quite simple. Excel should accept any sequence of
characters
as typed or pasted unless requested to do otherwise. It is very
simple
for
a user to change 1-2-3 to a date but it is impossible to change that
date
to
1-2-3. All of the Excel features are intended to be helpful but it
should
be possible to turn them on or turn them off.

I have tried everything that I can think of. If anyone has more
ideas, I
will try them. Meanwhile I think this is a programming problem in
Excel
and
needs a programming solution.

Kind regards

Vince

P.S. This is my fourth attempt to post. I keep getting error
messages
and lose posts that take ages to write. After the first failed
attempt,
I
started in writing in Word so that I can keep copying and attempting to
post
until successful. I find this discussion group system very difficult
to
use
compared to other discussion groups.

--
Vince


"MartinW" wrote:

Hi Vince,

Just precede your input with an apostrophe '
i.e. '1-2-3

The apostrophe forces your input to text format.
You can also preformat the cell(s) as text.

HTH
Martin

Vince

The numbers are comma-delimited when I go to the site.

Have you tried DataImport External DataNew Web Query?

Select via the arrows, the tables you want to import. In Properties, checkmark
"preserve cell formatting" and OK.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

On Sun, 9 Jul 2006 01:41:01 -0700, Vince
wrote:

http://www.tabonline.com.au/cgi-bin/main.pl?
Now the cat is out of the bag everyone will start a spreadsheet to beat the
racing system, lol.
--
Vince

Gord

That worked for me too. I am guessing Vince must be east of me as he didn't
com back

--
HTH
Nick Hodge
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Southampton, England
www.nickhodge.co.uk
HIS


"Gord Dibben" gorddibbATshawDOTca wrote in message
...
Vince

The numbers are comma-delimited when I go to the site.

Have you tried DataImport External DataNew Web Query?

Select via the arrows, the tables you want to import. In Properties,
checkmark
"preserve cell formatting" and OK.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

On Sun, 9 Jul 2006 01:41:01 -0700, Vince
wrote:

http://www.tabonline.com.au/cgi-bin/main.pl?
Now the cat is out of the bag everyone will start a spreadsheet to beat
the
racing system, lol.
--
Vince

Gordon

To get the data that I copy and paste

go to the site
Click on Racing
Click on results & search
Pick a date eg 8 jul 2006 Racing click on RESULTS
Click on a race eg EAGLE FARM BR1
one line of data data includes 9-2-4 10-7-2
Click on EAGLE FARM BR6
data includes 8-10-13-5 8-10-13-11
Click on GOLD COAST QR1
data includes 10-1-3 "blank"
Sometimes the data is limited to 10-1

I will check out your suggestion later today. The Tennis is just finished
and I must go to bed. just after 2am in Oz.

kind regards

--
Vince


"Vince" wrote:


--
Vince

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...lic.excel.misc

Vince

Having looked at it, I would lobby the website to change from frames...It's
ugly!

Gord's answer won't work as the frame you want to extract data from is not
even recognised by Excel, I guess as it's buried in many others

I think your best bet is to put this code in your personal.xls and select
the cells and it will change them to the correct format.

Excel has it's failings, but you can get around the 'sniffing' of data types
in many ways, just not when it's buried in ugly frames.

Here is the code that should work (Select the cell first)

Sub changeDateToOdds()
Dim first As String
Dim second As String
Dim third As String
first = Day(ActiveCell.Text)
second = Month(ActiveCell.Value)
third = Val(Right(Year(ActiveCell.Value), 2))
ActiveCell.NumberFormat = "@"
ActiveCell.Value = CStr(first & "-" & second & "-" & third)
End Sub


--
HTH
Nick Hodge
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Southampton, England
www.nickhodge.co.uk
HIS


"Vince" wrote in message
...
Gordon

To get the data that I copy and paste

go to the site
Click on Racing
Click on results & search
Pick a date eg 8 jul 2006 Racing click on RESULTS
Click on a race eg EAGLE FARM BR1
one line of data data includes 9-2-4 10-7-2
Click on EAGLE FARM BR6
data includes 8-10-13-5 8-10-13-11
Click on GOLD COAST QR1
data includes 10-1-3 "blank"
Sometimes the data is limited to 10-1

I will check out your suggestion later today. The Tennis is just
finished
and I must go to bed. just after 2am in Oz.

kind regards

--
Vince


"Vince" wrote:


--
Vince

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the
"I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and
then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...lic.excel.misc