Importing Info into Excel?

When I try to import information from a Word Document or another Spreadsheet that contains numerical data it converts it to a date {example 6-10} I want it to stay text so I can use it to refer to feet and inches. Is there any way to make this work, so I do not have to go manually manipulate the data? I have tried to make those cells format as text and then to import but it still reverts the data.