How do I change the settings so that if a number like 1-10 or 1/10 is entered
into a cell, it will stay like that rather than turning into 10-Jan for Excel
2007?

I know I can add a space before the number (which affect sorting and
alignments) or set the cell to text, but is there a way to change the
defaults to always prevent this from happening. I rarely enter dates and if I
do I would rather change it myself.

Also, this can be problematic when doing pasting from one source into Excel
while keeping links, etc. intact.

Thank you.