Formatting numbers in Excel for Mac

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Level 1

9 points

Formatting numbers in Excel for Mac

I have a sheet where formatting does not display correctly even though the cells in question have been formatted. This applies to both dates and numbers. For example, the date entered as 12/07/19 is displayed as 43658 and not as formatted.

On the same sheet, I have other cells formatted as numbers with 1000 separators but they are not displayed that way.

Interestingly, in both cases, the cell contents appear as text, i.e. aligned to the left, even though no alignment is chosen.

MacBook Air 13", macOS 10.14

Posted on Mar 25, 2020 11:28 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

John Galt

Level 10

146,192 points

Mar 25, 2020 12:07 PM in response to nhitchcock1

It seems you already tried Excel's usual formatting options but for whatever reason they're not working as expected. In your position I'd try entering that date 12/07/19 in a previously unformatted cell, then copying its format and applying it to the cell(s) that aren't behaving.

Whatever the reason, I rather doubt it's anything Mac-specific, so this might not be the best place to ask about it. Try this MS Excel User Community site: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel/bd-p/ExcelGeneral

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Answer 2

nhitchcock1 Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 25, 2020 12:30 PM in response to John Galt

Thank you for the prompt feedback. I tried your suggestion but alas no joy. I have now copied the data from the troublesome sheet and pasted as values to a new workbook. I then copied that worksheet to a new worksheet on the existing workbook and formatted the sheet again from scratch. Not the end of the world but have to go back through setting up cell validations again as well as formats. Hey ho. Thanks again, Neil

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Formatting numbers in Excel for Mac

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