No, the numbers will be displayed as dates but they will calculate so today's
date will be displayed as 01/00/00 and you cannot enter a time like 09:00
without getting an error

Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

"Transplanted Buckeye" wrote:

Will the dates display as numbers even if the cells have been formatted as
dates? As I migrate, there are two things I prefer Lotus 1-2-3 over Excel
are that Lotus can better detect numbers and you can edit between multiple
pastes without having to re-select what you want to paste, with the latter
being the more cumbersome.

Thanks for the help. I will give it a try.

" wrote:

Transplanted Buckeye wrote...
Why can't Excel add numbers in a cell without a leading '=' or '+'.
For
example, 3+2 returns a cell with "3+2" instead of "5".

Turn on Transition Formula Entry, Tools Options, select the
Transition tab in the Options dialog, check the entry for Transition
formula entry, click OK.

Be warned - this will make date entries much more difficult because
1-12-2005 and 1/12/2005 will also be treated as formulas, returning
-2016 and 4.15628E-05, respectively.

If you mean 'Why can't Excel just *add* numbers, but not subtract,
multiply or divide them without a leading = or +?', then I suppose it's
because Excel's developers believe consistency in this instance is more
important than convenience only for those who want to add.