use '-' as text

[murthigvs]

dear friends

i have a list of suffixes in xls. when i want to place '-' in front of the words, to denote that they are suffixes, xls reverts to using it as a function/formula and this does not change even if i format the column to text. how can i use '-' before a word in xls (ie., text string begins with '-') as a text please?

thanks.

[Glenn Kennedy]

Start the string with a ' a single tick.

[murthigvs]

sorry, i was only wanting to use -. i typed as '-' just to highlight the character -. pl reply again. thanks.

[murthigvs]

for eg septicaemia is two parts - septic and aemia. i want aemia to show in the xls as -aemia.

[Glenn Kennedy]

Try putting a space before the hyphen (a3). That will fool it into thinking it's text.

Also take a look at the sheet. It illustrates the options. The single tick is a non-printing character. See A4.

[martindwilson]

if you format the cell as text BEFORE entering - it will stay as text
you cant just enter it in general then change to text
or as glen says put it in as '-asdf you wont see the '

[Glenn Kennedy]

Thanks Martin, I forgot about this:
"if you format the cell as text BEFORE entering - it will stay as text"