I couldn't reproduce your problem. When I entered any of the three items
you showed, the cells continued to treat the values as text, not as
dates. This occurred whether the number format was changed to Text or
left as General.

- Jon
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Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Peltier Technical Services
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
http://PeltierTech.com/
_______


Terry wrote:
I set up my cell format as "text" format before I type name of sample ID
(9920-2, 9920-8, 9920-15, ...).
However, for 9920-2 and 9920-8, when I push "Enter" Xxcel changes my format
from text to date and become Feb-02 and Aug-02. 9920-15 and those after
remain the way I have set up.

Can anyone tell me how to make Excel stop changing my format and just use
text format I have set up.