Numbers showing as text (Excel 97 with Win 98)

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I have just started a new job, and have created a few spreadsheets. I have formatted cells as currency (whole columns!) – if I type in 20 it will show as

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Attach a censored example.

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Will do tomorrow when back at work! Many thanks for your response. Meryl.

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You might check your decimal symbol (Control Panel, Regional Settings, Currency) as it may be set to a comma “,” or some other character. Worth checking.

Andrew C

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More information on problem:-
Problem won’t transfer – if you put the spreadsheets on a different PC, problem goes away!
If you check the format of numbers showing as text, it still shows as Currency,

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I support the idea of Andrew, that the origin of your problem lies in the regional settings. Check the regional settings decimal separator from the Windows control panel. This might explain that it also occurs in Excel and Access and not in another computer (where the regional settings are different).

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Regional settings are all correct. We re-imaged the PC, so these settings are standard across the PC’s (but we checked them anyway!).

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Just wondering if you still have the problem. If so what happens if you enter =20.19 or +20.19 ?. Do they format correctly ?

Andrew C

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Still have the problem! If you type any number and include the decimal point, plus any numbers after, it looks like text – no currency symbol, and on the left of the cell. If you then look at the format of the cell, it still shows as currency, with 2 decimal places! If you type a whole number, such as 20, it shows in the correct format –

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Hi
Just a crazy from the antipodes ..
What happens if you change keyboards ?
Clutching at straws !! maybe but I guess you are excited by now.

Geof

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Tried changing keyboards. Not intentionally but we had to move to another desk! No different! Grrrrrrr

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Just wondering if there might be a kind of conflict between the settings for “Number” and “Currency” in the regional settings, where you can define (in both “number” and “currency”) the decimal seperator. Maybe you checked that already, if so, just forget this suggestion.

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Hi,
Just to try and narrow the problem down a bit, do you get text if you type in 20. (i.e. 20 and a decimal point with nothing after it) and then press enter? If so, it’s pretty much got to be something to do with your regional settings I would guess.

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If you enter a round number, be it with a decimal point or not, it formats correctly as currency. However you type in a number to 2 decimal places, even if you put in the

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What do you get if you enter 100 in a cell, say A1, and then in another cell divide that by 3 (=A1/3) , what formatting does that take on ?

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Meryl, check Geof Richardson’s idea, and also check “Format, Style, Number” in the problem Workbook to see if there’s an oddity. I don’t see that you ever attached it for us to look at .

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Hi Meryl
Has anyone been messing around customizing formatting styles and subsequently merged them into the default template ?

Geof

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