Noob question about hexadecimal and base 26

[tsig]

Hello, just joined the forum after being befuddled by a few, probably basic, questions. One primary question is whether Excel can be set, when using a "number" designation for a cell, to understand hexadecimal (base 16) or Base 26 (e.g., AQR) or whether it's firmly rooted in base 10 (1, 2, 3, etc). Using Office 2011 on a Mac if that makes any difference

[shg]

No, but there may be another way to do whatever it is you're trying to do.

[FDibbins]

welcome to the forum

Not sure is this will be of any help at all, but, in a blank cell, type in =hex2....and see if the options there are of any value to you?
Likewise =bin2...=dec2...=oct2

[tsig]

Just trying to save bits while using Excel to mock up a spreadsheet model. I was hoping to get more mileage out of 9A7DA3 (6 characters) than I could out of 10124707 (8 characters), especially when it comes to sorting and a column that would act as the primary key.

[tsig]

Thanks for the =HEX2... idea!

I can see that =Dec2Hex might actually help, but I gather I'd have to have a separate column just for the conversion. I like the way Excel allows one to type 1 in the first cell, 2 in the cell below it, shift-click (to select both cells) and then run it out to numbers in the 1,000s. Was just hoping I could set a preference to do the same with hexadecimal numbers.