Currency format

Posted by Jeff Pagel on December 05, 2001 8:49 AM

I've tried to format cells in a worksheet by clicking format - cells- and then currency. It doesn't work. And when I type numbers in any cell, they aren't read as numbers and are left aligned. The graph on the sheet though shows up as currency values. So, WHAT IS WRONG??

Posted by Mark W. on December 05, 2001 10:54 AM

I'm guessing that you entered your numeric values
into cells that were formatted as Text and then
applied a Currency format afterwards. Once a
value is entered into a Text-formatted cell it
becomes a text value (i.e., "1" instead of 1).
And changing the cell's format doesn't alter the
data type of the value stored in the cell. You
must force Excel to re-examine the value by
either re-editing each cell (which is very time
consuming) or using the Data | Text to Columns...
menu command. Choose "Fixed width" at Step 1 of
3 on the Text to Columns Wizard and then press
[ Finish ].