The autocorrect feature in Excel that has been driving geneticists crazy for years finally corrected.
Even if you’re not a genetic scientist, you’ve probably encountered this problem. When you enter data into Microsoft Excel, a spreadsheet sometimes interprets alphanumeric formulas as dates and routinely formats them as such. Gene symbols often have names which might be mistaken for dates, corresponding to SEPT2 or MARCH 1, which caused headaches for scientists trying to enter their data. Except that 2016 study found that one-fifth of research articles using data compiled in Excel are incorrect or corrupt. It got to the purpose where scientists actually began changing gene names to avoid annoying automatic conversion.
Now Microsoft has finally found an answer. In an announcement last week, the Microsoft 365 team released a setting that allows Excel users to change the overly useful default behavior.
How to disable automatic data conversion
To disable this setting in Excel, go to File > Options > Data, then scroll down to Automatic Data Conversion. Then uncheck the “Enable all default data conversions below when entering, pasting, or loading text into Excel” setting. There are also subsettings to disable leading zero removal, truncation of numeric digits to a selected format, and automatic conversion of numeric data across the letter “E”, in addition to the previously mentioned automatic conversion of continuous letters and numbers to date.
Finallyyyyy.
Source: Microsoft
Additionally, it is feasible to notify the user about any automatic conversions when importing a .csv file into Excel. However, Microsoft stated within the announcement that there are just a few exceptions. Excel saves data as text, which implies it could not work for mathematical calculations. Additionally, there may be a known issue that doesn’t support disabling automatic conversions when running macros.
That said, this can be a long overdue arrangement that will definitely make geneticists joyful and hopefully prevent future mistakes and naming hassles.
Credit : mashable.com
