At 08:01 20/10/2008 -0600, Floyd Beaver wrote:
In Calc when I type in a number like a part number, it automatically destroys my entry and makes it a date. I tried changing the format to number and it still ruins the spreadsheet by making the part number a date. It seems to work correctly if I format the part number column as text, but if Calc automatically turns all numbers to a date, it will have no useful value as a program. I never had this problem with 2.4
It doesn't help to say "a number like a part number": if your numbers are indeed plain numbers, Calc will not do what you describe, of course. What format do your part numbers have? If they include such things as points, hyphens, or slashes and your cell format is Number, then - depending on your locale - Calc may indeed interpret your values as dates and convert them appropriately. This is documented, so it is not a bug: it is a feature! (Oh, and Calc does not "turn[] all numbers to a date".)
You say that you can achieve what you want by formatting the cells as text, and this is indeed what you should do. Another way to achieve the same result is to precede the entered text with an apostrophe: this is a signal to Calc that you want your entry to appear as text and to disable automatic conversion to date format. Note that, if you have custom quotes enabled under AutoCorrect you will need to disable this or else to type Ctrl+Z to undo this correction after typing the apostrophe.
It's also worth saying that anyway you really do need to ensure that your values are entered as text in situations like this. Your part number is presumably a string of characters, many of which may be digits. But you do not want this to be represented as a number (any more than a date), as this may be rounded and would be displayed to a chosen number of digits. "12.5" is presumably a different part number from "12.50", but they are the same number. There is also a smallish limit to how many digits you can store in a number; this doesn't apply to strings of digits as text. So your discovered solution - formatting the cells as text - is exactly the one you should be using.
(I suspect that millions of OpenOffice users out there may disagree that Calc "will have no useful value as a program".)
I trust this helps. Brian Barker --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
