I am working with Excel 2007. Files exported from SAP to Excel often contain
text fields that get converted to dates.

Is there a way to turnoff Excels auto date conversion for cells with a
general format? I already know cells formatted as text do not convert to date
values and values entered in to a cell having a general format preceded with
an (€˜) will not be messed with. Neither of these points of information is of
any use in solving the problems I am having.

Using the startup workbook using both template and workbook formats in the XL
Start Folder to set the desired columns text format seemed like a good idea
but does not work either. The problem here is this does not change the format
of the default Workbooks created using the New Worksheet option. Is there a
way this setting can be changed? Or is there some other solution to this
problem? Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Rich