Microsoft resolves Excel issue impacting scientific data representation

Microsoft has addressed a long-standing issue in Excel that has been causing frustration for scientists and researchers working with gene data.

The problem revolved around Excel's automatic data conversion feature, which often misinterpreted alphanumeric symbols used to represent genes, turning them into dates or making other unhelpful formatting changes.

Microsoft has now rolled out an update for Excel on both Windows and macOS that aims to fix this issue. The update introduces a new setting within Excel, labeled "Convert continuous letters and numbers to a date," which allows users to control the automatic data conversion feature.

By switching this setting, users can prevent Excel from automatically converting alphanumeric symbols into dates, giving scientists more control over their data.