Microsoft Updates Excel to Disable Automatic Data Conversion, Addressing Scientists’ Concerns
Image: Stephen Brashear (Getty Images)
In a recent blog post, Microsoft announced new updates to Excel that allow users to disable Automatic Data Conversion. This news comes as a relief to scientists who have struggled with Excel converting human gene names into dates.
For context, each gene is assigned a name and a symbol, with the symbol typically being an alphanumeric character. However, Excel had a tendency to misinterpret these symbols as dates, leading to significant issues. For example, the gene “Membrane Associated Ring-CH-Type Finger 1” would be converted to “1-Mar” by Excel.
Previously, there was no option to disable this automatic conversion, resulting in numerous scientific papers being affected. Scientists had to manually correct these errors and restore the data, resulting in wasted hours of work. In 2020, the scientific community took matters into their own hands and changed how these genes were referenced in Excel, substituting certain symbols with different ones.
Now, three years later, Microsoft has finally implemented fixes to address this problem. The latest Excel update introduces a checkbox labeled “Convert continuous letters and numbers to a date,” which can be toggled on or off. This update includes several additional checkboxes within the Automatic Data Conversion category.
Microsoft has also added another option, “When loading a .csv file or similar file, notify me of any automatic number conversions,” which displays a warning message when opening certain files with automatic data conversions.
However, it’s important to note that one of the “known issues” flagged by Microsoft is that the new conversion option does not function properly when running macros.
Scientists worldwide are optimistic that these updates will significantly streamline their research and prevent future conversion-related issues. Excel users can now work with confidence, knowing that their gene names will remain unchanged and accurate in their datasets.
Image: Microsoft