Level 1

6 points

Parentheses for negative numbers in Excel 2011

I couldn't find an appropriate section for this question. Please forgive me if I posted it in the wrong place.

I've been using Excel for Mac 2011 since it came out. Up until I updated to Yosemite, formatting negative numbers with parentheses appeared in the drop down menu, i.e., right click to get format cells, click "number" tab on top, click "number" on left. There is a dialog as to how you want negative numbers formatted. Parentheses used to be an option but no more. I attached a screen shot. Help!

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3), 2.7GHz Quad, Core I5, 2x4GB

Posted on Oct 22, 2014 4:13 AM

Top-ranking reply

jmgathg

Level 1

9 points

Posted on Nov 20, 2014 7:03 AM

Same issue here with Excel 2011, problem started with the Yosemite installation and was not fixed with 10.10.1 nor the latest Microsoft update.

It's a big problem for accountants!

On the Microsoft forum this gentleman replied with a workaround but it's a hassle to have to do this for each new spreadsheet.

JonathanBuhacoff replied on

If you go to the dialog shown in Phillip's post and select "Custom" on the left side, you can enter this to get the parenthesis back:

$#,##0;[Red](-$#,##0)

Or this to use square brackets:

$#,##0;[Red]"["-$#,##0"]"

The format means use $#,##0 for positive numbers and use [-$#,##0] in red for negative numbers.

You could remove the hyphen too and just do this:

$#,##0;[Red]"["$#,##0"]"

I hope Apple takes note and pushes a fix for us.

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65 replies

Zarasa

Level 1

0 points

Sep 24, 2015 10:34 AM in response to gsusser

how can apple leave this unresolved for a year, yet expect business people to feel confident that apple products should move beyond the executive suite usually occupied by megalomaniacs who must have the latest and greatest tech toy and beyond creative prima donnas in marketing who demand the graphics capabilities?

it has been nearly a year since this was reported and there is still no fix. at their recent "love in" where the ipad pro was launched, apple announced to us all that they were getting serious about supporting business with the ipad pro and apps. really? do they realize that many (most?) financial professionals use parentheses for negative values? does anyone from apple bother to read this support blog?

thanks to the posters who have provided the work around. i do very little spreadsheet work myself these days, but when i create a spreadsheet i want to do it the right way (with negative numbers in parentheses).

agl74

Level 1

4 points

Oct 7, 2015 6:54 PM in response to agl74

Only thing is I can't update to El Capitan yet since there are known issues with Exchange... I've been burned so many times with Exchange issues from both Mavericks and Yosemite and will have to wait another few months until all of that gets sorted out!

jmgathg

Level 1

9 points

Mar 15, 2016 4:23 AM in response to gsusser

This issue is FIXED!

I didn't notice which update from Microsoft Office fixed the issue but now, by default, the negative brackets are back when using comma or accounting formatting.

Thank you Microsoft!

gsusser Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 22, 2014 8:24 AM in response to rkaufmann87

I did go to the MS forum. They cannot figure out the problem. I am 99% sure this is a Yosemite issue. Can anyone confirm having the same problem when they upgraded to Yosemite?

rkaufmann87

Level 10

149,230 points

Oct 22, 2014 8:28 AM in response to gsusser

It's not, it works fine for my installation of Office for Mac 2011 running OS X 10.10.

gsusser Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 22, 2014 8:34 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Dang, back to square one.

Oct 22, 2014 12:28 PM in response to rkaufmann87

I just checked for updates and it said that there were none available.

Oct 22, 2014 2:31 PM in response to gsusser

I appreciate you contacting them. Hopefully they will be able to address the issue shortly.

MCinPDX

Level 1

9 points

Dec 12, 2014 6:22 PM in response to gsusser

+1...same problem.

b1598

Level 1

4 points

Dec 22, 2014 7:46 AM in response to gsusser

I also have this problem--only since upgrading to Yosemite!

klampp

Level 1

8 points

Jan 17, 2015 12:56 PM in response to gsusser

I am having the same issue as well.

Jan 20, 2015 7:05 AM in response to gsusser

Same problem.

Jan 26, 2015 12:07 PM in response to Borntarun

Same problem. This is annoying.

Feb 3, 2015 8:47 PM in response to JonPFSFromPhoenix

Same problem! Was hoping to find it's been fixed as I read through the thread. Sadly no.

Adding my name to the list. Hopefully this gets fixed soon.

tbirdvet

Level 6

17,783 points

Feb 4, 2015 8:21 AM in response to brianwpetersen

Anyone see any change with 10.10.2 OS?

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Parentheses for negative numbers in Excel 2011