Output file in Excel and with cell format in Text

[JanaZ]

Hi All

I have an output file in excel which like below screenshot:

How can I get the output file in excel but the cell format is in Text in stead of General as shown above? See screenshot below:

thanks

Jana

[skeen503979]

Hey there, @JanaZ .

Have you read through the difference between various Data Types (which you can identify and edit with the Select tool)?  Why are you wanting Excel to view those cells as Text rather than General?  What benefit is there for you in doing this?

https://help.alteryx.com/current/designer/data-types

[JanaZ]

Thanks @skeen503979 for your comments. 

We are going to use the output file as a template which has to be in specific format.

Cheers

Jana

[DataMeister]

Skeen503979: One vital reason is to avoid Excel's notorious automatic date processing. Microsoft apparently thinks Excel should decide what we need! Here's their own explanation and weak response to a hapless user. If Alteryx would make formatting output columns as text easy for us, then we could stop waiting for Microsoft to let us turn off this ridiculous "feature". Stop automatically changing numbers to dates (microsoft.com)

[DawnDuong]

hi @JanaZ 

I am making a guess of what the use case is, but here are some options you can consider

1) You can pre-format the excel file. and when you pull data into the Excel, you can select to output to specific range, named range, or use blob to preserve the formatting. There are many responses on these topics on the community which you can search/ google out.

2) Use reporting tool, which then will allow you to build highly customized templates, with comprehensive formatting and layout options.

Dawn.