How do I stop Excel 2002 from autoformatting numbers into dates?

When I type in a number such as "3/8" or "3-8", Excel automatically changes
it to "08-Mar". I've tried changing the format of the cell to general, but
that changes the data to say "38149" and then changes back to custom
formatting when I attempt to type in "3/8" again. I've tried turning off all
autoformatting and autocorrecting. All this technology of "guessing" what
you're trying to type can be extremely frustrating and pointless when you
can't even type basic data into the worksheet.

Change the cells to plain text.

"MyHeartPoursOn" wrote:

When I type in a number such as "3/8" or "3-8", Excel automatically changes
it to "08-Mar". I've tried changing the format of the cell to general, but
that changes the data to say "38149" and then changes back to custom
formatting when I attempt to type in "3/8" again. I've tried turning off all
autoformatting and autocorrecting. All this technology of "guessing" what
you're trying to type can be extremely frustrating and pointless when you
can't even type basic data into the worksheet.