I have Office 2007 running in Vista Home Premium. My system got FUBARed and
had to be reloaded. Now my Excel workbooks won't keep the proper formatting
in cells. I have them formatted as general so that I can type in something
like 4 - 1. As soon as I do that it converts the formatting to Custom and
puts it in as a 1-Apr. If I try to reformat the cell as general I then get
39904. If I enter it as space 4 - 1 then it enters correctly.

How can I make the cell give me the correct information without putting a
space in front of it?