[criddell]

It's not working for me. I have those all unticked but if I create a new file and go to cell A1 and type 1/2, it puts 2-Jan in the cell rather than the text I want.

If I then put 60/100 in cell A2, it doesn't do any conversion. Then put the formula "=Search("/", A1)" in cell B1 and copy that to cell B2, B1 evaluates to #VALUE! and B2 evaluates to 3.

[dreghgh]

If you want the text "1/2" you should type '1/2

If you want the value one-half you should type =1/2

Not sure why this is controversial, Excel obviously has a syntax that's not focused on reproducing literal text.

[yencabulator]

You're not responding to the part where parent says the result is not 1/2 as in 0.5 but 2-Jan. The boobytrapped date parsing appears to be still happening even with "Automatic Data Conversions" disabled.

[dreghgh]

I understood that 1/2 converts to 2-Jan (or 1-Feb depending on settings).

That is desired behaviour. If you want the string 1/2 you need to use an apostrophe. If you want the fraction one half you need to use an equals sign. Both of these are vastly less likely to be what a user wants than the date interpretation, so it makes sense for that to be the default.

[yencabulator]

The parent posters discuss a menu option to turn off this automatic date parsing.