When we go to archives to record genealogical and historical
information, I usa a databade program,. askSam, but my wife uses a
spreadsheet, because she is an accountant, and that isd what she is
familiar with.

But when we try to print the information out for filing, Excel has
"helpfully" changed it.

For example, one archival reference was MOOC 13/1/3119

Excel printed this out as 13/01/19, which would be a quite different
file in the archives filing system, and so useless as a reference.

I have notice this behaviour elsewhere, when I was using a spreadsheet
to index books, because I wound it easier than setting up a database
program to do it.

Even if one defined a column as "Text" in Excel, it still interpreted
some entries as dates, and changed them.

Eventually I used Libre Office Calc, which did not seem to have that
particular problem.

Spreadsheets can sometimes be useful for simple "flat file" database
projects, but the erratic behaviour of Excel can be a pitfall for the
unwary.



--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk