No, there is no way for designate as text vs formula.

You can add a single quote at the start.

[pscustomobject]@{Description = "'=====TEST====" } | export-excel .\test.xlsx -WorksheetName 'test' -ClearSheet -Show

Adding a single quote doesn't work correctly. Excel then displays this single quote, and reimporting the sheet also exposes this single quote. :(

You would have a similar issue if you did this directly in Excel. After entering the cell and hitting F2 (you have probably seen this with Hyperlinks as well), Excel sees it as you want it to and re-consuming it shows it as text.

You would have a similar issue if you did this directly in Excel.

If you mean entering ====TEST==== would be evaluated as a formula, YES, except I know to use '====TEST==== and Excel will treat it as text, and it does NOT show the quote, if it even stores it. When I Import-Excel with such an input, the quote is not returned. If I put a single quote in front of the value when using Export-Excel, it is NOT the same as doing it in Excel, as now Excel displays the quote, and Import-Excel returns it.

I would think that there should be a means to signal that a column/property is strictly text (at least if it is string type), not to be interpreted as a formula, and also set the QuotePrefix style property where required to emulate the same behavior experienced within Excel. This would be better than -NoNumberConversion as that still leaves the cell value in a way it could be reevaluated, if the NumberFormat style is not set to Text.

Alternately the automatic formula assumption could be disabled if the NumberFormat style is set to Text. While Excel will accept switching the format to Text after the formula is entered, you cannot enter a formula afterwards.

This is an edge case. Need to think about it more.

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.