On Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:00:19 +0100, Brian Barker <[email protected]> wrote:
>At 05:05 12/07/2009 -0500, Tamblyne Noname wrote: >>I am trying to use Calc (v.3.1.0) for a cemetery transcription. I >>have a "born" column and a "died" column. It would be nice to use a >>date format for these, but sometimes I only have a year -- not the >>whole date -- and that makes a mess of things. >> >>The problem I'm having is that I can't seem to change the cell >>format to just text. No matter what I do, it wants to put a number >>in there. How do I make OOo understand that, all evidence to the >>contrary, a "text" cell is really what I want? Or is there some >>other way I can get it to leave my year-only entries alone? > >You can set the format of a single cell to "Text", of course - which >will change whatever format you may have chosen for the column or >other range. I notice that the result is different depending on >whether I apply text formatting to a cell before or after entering >the date - which is not surprising, in fact. If you let Calc >recognise a date, it stores a number but displays it as a date, and >the precise format in which you entered the date is lost; if the cell >is formatted first, the actual characters you enter are preserved. > >But there is a simpler way: just precede what you type with an >apostrophe. This will not display in the cell (though it does in the >Input line), but indicates to Calc that you want this entry >interpreted just as text. Note that you need a plain apostrophe >here, not a "smart" one. If necessary, either go to Tools | >AutoCorrect Options... | Custom Quotes | Single quotes and remove the >tick from Replace, or else use Edit | Undo (or Ctrl+Z) immediately >after you type the apostrophe, which will undo the autocorrection and >leave the plain apostrophe. > >You may find it useful whilst experimenting to switch on View | Value >Highlighting: text values will then appear in black and numbers - >including dates - in blue. (The help text says that dates appear in >green, but this appears not to be so.) > >I trust this helps. It does! Very much! Thank you! --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
