Microsoft Excel Replace (Ctrl H) Bug

Question

Hi,

I just wanted to point out a bug that I noticed whenever I used the Replace function.

If you use Replace (Ctrl H) to replace a number and add the ":" symbol. to it, the format of the cell will immediately change.

E.g. Replace all "3" with "3:" will get you "03:00".

This problem will not occur if you manually type a ":" to the "3".

Thank you.

Answer 1

The current way to bring an idea to the attention of the development team is to post it on http://excel.uservoice.com

Other members of the Excel community can then vote for your suggestion.

Those with the highest number of votes get the most serious attention from the product team.

Bill, Quick question, can we downvote on uservoice? It occurs to me that people may request changes that break others workbooks. This is a case in point, many might want it changed, but most might not.

It's a problem with the whole uservoice system. We now have to go to uservoice regularly to check that changes that might cause us a problem are not getting too many votes. How else do we make sure the functionality we use it not getting killed because a few hundred people might want it to work differently. If you're going to have voting, you have to make sure the voting is open to all and publicised so we all get a chance to vote.

How to publicize? How about in the same popups that tell us a new version is available. Rather than that, it should say "MS are proposing these changes, vote for or against here....." Only once it gets a majority vote should it go to development and update.

Answer 2

The current way to bring an idea to the attention of the development team is to post it on http://excel.uservoice.com

Other members of the Excel community can then vote for your suggestion.

Those with the highest number of votes get the most serious attention from the product team.

Answer 3

Hi,

Would the Microsoft Excel Devs be interested in preventing the above from happening in future versions?

Perhaps, they could just turn off the auto-formatting?

If people prefer date and time, they can simply change the format of the cell.

Globally, I believe many users of Microsoft Excel would face this issue where auto-formatting kicks in for no reason and they are forced to do a silly workaround by using the ' symbol.

Thank you.

You would need to verify that your statement regarding "many users of Microsoft Excel...." is true of the majority of all Excel users before considering a change. I for one have never had problems with the formatting problem.

Answer 4

Hi,

Would the Microsoft Excel Devs be interested in preventing the above from happening in future versions?

Perhaps, they could just turn off the auto-formatting?

If people prefer date and time, they can simply change the format of the cell.

Globally, I believe many users of Microsoft Excel would face this issue where auto-formatting kicks in for no reason and they are forced to do a silly workaround by using the ' symbol.

Thank you.

Answer 5

Actually, I find that if a cell contains 3 and I edit it by appending a ":" the cell changes to 03:00, just like in Replace.

And this happens even if the cell is formatted as Text.

The only way I have found to change that behaviour is to start with cells containing '3  (note the leading ') to force the content to be considered as text.  Equally, if you start with cells containing 3 and do a Replace, make the replacement string '3: