Is there a way to configure excel to not automatically
convert text that looks like a date into a date format?

For example, I want to be able to type the text
string "August 3" into a cell and expect it to remain
as "August 3". Excel is always converting this into date
format automatically as "3-Aug".

I know that if you type it as 'August 3 then it won't
convert but is there any other way than this?

thanks