How to avoid automatic data conversion when pasting (paste everything as text)?

Question

excel

Actually, I insert a table, where some of the cells look like "17.2.16", Excel converts this into dates. Is it possible to make it paste everything as text?

Answer 1

The first option is to transform the data before inserting. Add a single quote before each value.
The second option is to paste the data, convert and paste again.

Answer 2

Assign the "Text" format to the cells in which you will insert these lines (select cells -> right-click on the selected one -> "Format Cells" -> "Number" tab -> select "Text" -> "OK").