"Excel's default behavior is to convert certain text entries into dates. It makes sense for general spreadsheet use, but not for geneticists. Genes, like Membrane Associated Ring-CH-Type Finger 1, are given alphanumeric symbols (MARCH1) as a shorthand for their full, complex names. When a scientist would input "MARCH1" into an Excel spreadsheet, the software would automatically interpret this as a date and convert it to "1-Mar"[...]For a long time, Microsoft's position was that this was a niche issue affecting a small number of users"
To be fair, this really is a niche issue. For all that I agree with the frustration for Microsoft's terrible behavior in so many other respects, it's hard to fault them for not being immediately responsive to something like this.
"Excel's default behavior is to convert certain text entries into dates. It makes sense for general spreadsheet use, but not for geneticists. Genes, like Membrane Associated Ring-CH-Type Finger 1, are given alphanumeric symbols (MARCH1) as a shorthand for their full, complex names. When a scientist would input "MARCH1" into an Excel spreadsheet, the software would automatically interpret this as a date and convert it to "1-Mar"[...]For a long time, Microsoft's position was that this was a niche issue affecting a small number of users"
To be fair, this really is a niche issue. For all that I agree with the frustration for Microsoft's terrible behavior in so many other respects, it's hard to fault them for not being immediately responsive to something like this.
Ok, sure. Now open this .csv
Do you really think that auto converting MARCH1 to a date even helped anybody? Who is writing dates like this?
The option to turn off the auto conversion stuff, should have been shipped way before 2023.