In 2020, scientists determined simply to rework the alphanumeric symbols they used to signify genes slightly than attempt to cope with an Excel function that was decoding their names as dates and (un)helpfully reformatting them robotically. Yesterday, a member of the Excel team posted that the corporate is rolling out an replace on Home windows and macOS to repair that.
Excel’s automated conversions are meant to make it simpler and sooner to enter sure sorts of generally entered information — numbers and dates, as an example. However for scientists utilizing fast shorthand to make issues legible, it may wreck printed, peer-reviewed information, as a 2016 study found.
Microsoft detailed the update in a weblog submit this week, including a checkbox labeled “Convert steady letters and numbers to a date.” You possibly can in all probability guess what that toggles. The replace builds on the Automated Knowledge Conversions settings the corporate added final 12 months, which included the choice for Excel to warn you when it’s about to get additional useful and allow you to load your file with out automated conversion so you’ll be able to guarantee nothing can be screwed up by it.
Microsoft’s weblog provides caveats, equivalent to that Excel avoids the conversion by saving the information as textual content, which suggests the information might not work for calculations later. There’s additionally a identified subject the place you’ll be able to’t disable the conversions when working macros.
