Sam,

If the cells are truly formatted as text (Format - Cells - Number - Text),
the formatting should never change, and you should always see exactly what
you've typed. Give us an example of a cell before you've made the change,
and tell us what Format - Cells - Number tab indicates.
--
Earl Kiosterud
www.smokeylake

"Sam" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I have a long column of numbers [dates in the YY:DD format]. I wanted to
replace
":61" to ":59". Even though the cells are initially formatted as Text, as
soon as I make the change, Excel changes the formatting to Time, and the
cell
with the change now has text ":59:00" in it.

Is it possible to force Excel to keep the cells formatted as Text?

Thank you!