Make Excel default cell format "TEXT" instead of "General"

Question

Make Excel default cell format "TEXT" instead of "General"

Garrett Millward 26

I often export sheets from software I use to Excel. When I open the sheet. Long serial numbers that often begin with zero change to 3.145E10 as an example instead of the actual number I need. It also change numbers with hyphens into dates which I don't want it to do. So far I have been unable to find a way to keep the original data intact when importing this data. Is there a way to keep this from happening, or defaulting the cell format to TEXT so I don't have this problem?

Norma 0 Reputation points

2023-10-04T19:47:14.4166667+00:00

I have the same question for a different reason. We do a lot of copying and pasting among different fields in excel. I can format all the cells as text, but the moment I cut a value out and paste it elsewhere, the cell defaults back to general instead of text, meaning that any dates I put in are going to be formatted wrong for the final export.

I need a way to make sure all the cells stay as text as the default, regardless of whether or not I cut an item from the field and paste it elsewhere. I still need the cell I cut data out of to be text. Not default to general.

Accepted answer

0 additional answers

Your answer

Norma 0 Reputation points

2023-10-04T19:47:14.4166667+00:00

I have the same question for a different reason. We do a lot of copying and pasting among different fields in excel. I can format all the cells as text, but the moment I cut a value out and paste it elsewhere, the cell defaults back to general instead of text, meaning that any dates I put in are going to be formatted wrong for the final export.

I need a way to make sure all the cells stay as text as the default, regardless of whether or not I cut an item from the field and paste it elsewhere. I still need the cell I cut data out of to be text. Not default to general.

Answer 1

Dillon Silzer 57,826 Volunteer Moderator

Hello @Garrett Millward

Have you tried Excel's Get & Transform (Power Query)? Use the following link as a guide for importing Text/CSV and changing the column type. This is an extra step, but should help with your instance.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/keeping-leading-zeros-and-large-numbers-1bf7b935-36e1-4985-842f-5dfa51f85fe7

--------------------------

If this is helpful please mark as correct answer.

Garrett Millward 26 Reputation points

2022-07-27T16:04:37.617+00:00

That is very helpful, thank you. I will have to play around with it some more, but my immediate need was resolved.

Share via

Make Excel default cell format "TEXT" instead of "General"

0 additional answers

Your answer