I want MS Excel not to change any of the data I entered.?

Question

for example, numbers that are really numbers, but are turned into date, such as Feb 12, 2003, but what I really want is "2-12".

Answer 1

Select the whole column. Select format/cell/Format as Text.

Answer 2

Your only problem is you didn't use an equal sign. If you enter

=2-12 the result will be -10, whereas if you enter just

2-12 Excel converts it to Feb. 12, and if you enter something that it can't convert to a date, such as

2-100 Excel will just make it text, "2-100"

Answer 3

It is very easy just type this symbol ' first then type 2-12 for example '2-12 then enter key. Excel will display it as it is.