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  • OT: Excel weirdness

    From Philip Herlihy@21:1/5 to All on Sun May 21 16:29:50 2023
    (I haven't found a good Excel group, and I know no more knowledgeable group than this one!)

    I have a friend whose surname is "Alway". As I'm putting together a mailing list, I found myself typing that into Excel. It corrects it to "Always" - whatever I do; there is no pop-up options dialogue. In the end, I typed =LEFT ("Always", 5), copied that, and then pasted values. Is this just a bug?
    (Excel 2013)


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    Phil, London

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  • From Andy Burns@21:1/5 to Philip Herlihy on Sun May 21 18:35:58 2023
    Philip Herlihy wrote:

    I have a friend whose surname is "Alway". As I'm putting together a mailing list, I found myself typing that into Excel. It corrects it to "Always" -

    What if you prefix with a single quote to make it a string literal e.g.
    'Alway

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  • From Philip Herlihy@21:1/5 to All on Mon May 22 15:19:15 2023
    In article <kcv33sFn7q3U1@mid.individual.net>, Andy Burns wrote...

    Philip Herlihy wrote:

    I have a friend whose surname is "Alway". As I'm putting together a mailing
    list, I found myself typing that into Excel. It corrects it to "Always" -

    What if you prefix with a single quote to make it a string literal e.g. 'Alway

    Oddly, that seemed to work the first time I tried it, but subsequently didn't. Can't explain that. The =LEFT() option did work, although it tried to correct the string parameter (but accepted the edit).

    --

    Phil, London

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  • From Philip Herlihy@21:1/5 to All on Tue May 23 11:51:10 2023
    In article <MPG.3ed58a399ed3f9a5989a66@news.eternal-september.org>, Philip Herlihy wrote...

    In article <kcv33sFn7q3U1@mid.individual.net>, Andy Burns wrote...

    Philip Herlihy wrote:

    I have a friend whose surname is "Alway". As I'm putting together a mailing
    list, I found myself typing that into Excel. It corrects it to "Always" -

    What if you prefix with a single quote to make it a string literal e.g. 'Alway

    Oddly, that seemed to work the first time I tried it, but subsequently didn't.
    Can't explain that. The =LEFT() option did work, although it tried to correct
    the string parameter (but accepted the edit).

    Correction: it was resolute in autocorrecting the string parameter! But when I copied and pasted the value of =LEFT("Always", 5) the destination cell finally received the desired string. Doubtless if I ever tinker with that cell it'll do the same again, unless I delete that standard autocorrection.

    My mistake, of course, was to think that the absence of an options pop-up meant that autocorrect wasn't in play.

    --

    Phil, London

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