Embedded Excel Spreadsheet - Preventing automatic formatting

[UncleRonin]

Okay, I use sequences of numbers within the embedded sheet and i refer back and forth between these numbers for calculations (in code). Now for certain sequences of 3 numbers the spreadsheet automatically tries to convert it to a date. How can I disable this? I know that by adding "'" before the number that it displays correctly, but the text in the cell remains "' 1 2 3".

Is there a way to stop the autoformatting at all?