I have to import/export files in and out of access and other programs using
excel on a daily basis. All of these files are .CSV files. Some of the data
in these files are the same as a date. For example; mar2 or feb-1. Both of
these are product numbers and are not intended to be dates. When I open the
file in excel it automatically changes them to dates. If I then highlight
them and convert them to text I get a 5 digit number like "38413". So each
time I open them I have to go through all the lines that I know were
converted and change them back to the original data. If I forget or miss just
one line then I can corrupt my database. I would like to know 2 things.
First, how do I tell Excel not to autoformat (especially dates) Second, can I
tell Excel to treat every thing as "Text" when opening a CSV file?

If you rename your .csv files to .txt, then you can use File|open and you'll see
the data import wizard.

You can specify that the "date like" field is really text.



Jake Bailey wrote:

I have to import/export files in and out of access and other programs using
excel on a daily basis. All of these files are .CSV files. Some of the data
in these files are the same as a date. For example; mar2 or feb-1. Both of
these are product numbers and are not intended to be dates. When I open the
file in excel it automatically changes them to dates. If I then highlight
them and convert them to text I get a 5 digit number like "38413". So each
time I open them I have to go through all the lines that I know were
converted and change them back to the original data. If I forget or miss just
one line then I can corrupt my database. I would like to know 2 things.
First, how do I tell Excel not to autoformat (especially dates) Second, can I
tell Excel to treat every thing as "Text" when opening a CSV file?

--

Dave Peterson