I have a problem when I read the ":" colon as a separator from an excel or
text file that uses it as a separator.

the example I have is that when the colon separator is followed by a
number, say for example : 35, the number appears on the cell as 35:00:00
which is a time format.

It seems that Excel takes the separator as a time format for the cell and it
does not allow change of the cell's format not even to a simple text format.
Even when the formatting of the cell is changed to a general format it
generates a decimal number that is a multiplier of 24. If the value in the
cell is ": 24" and we format the cell as text it would show a"1" in it.

Is there a way the maintain the cell as a text formatted cell where the data
is maintained the same even if a colon is used as a separator?

In other words if ": 24 " is entered the cell should stay as ": 24" after a
text format is applied.