Solved: VB Net Excel

In a VB 2008 program, I am exporting an object array ( Friend theIncludes(,) AsObject ) to excel using the code below. Everything works wonderfully, unless one of the array elements includes a string that excel decides to intrepret for me. How can I get excel to stop changing a string of 12/10 to Dec-10...I have tried numberformat = "General" and "Text" to no avail as well as .value versus .value2

xlsWB.Sheets(1).Select()
If iIncludes > 0 Then
xlsRange = xlsSheet.Range("A1:" + colOut_LastExcel + iIncludes.ToString)
xlsRange.Value2 = theIncludes
' xlsRange.Value = theIncludes
EndIf


Many thanks
cjeffc

 

xlsRange.Numberformat = "@" ' use at for text