Cell Format changed from General to number

[BJ]

Hi List,

There is an Excel file used for user to enter next year's budget. the whole
speadsheet is protected except the cells that allow user to enter numbers.
and these cells's format is 'general'. Since users need to have more space to
type in numbers, we need to keep the cell format as 'General'. but if user
typed "," manually like "123,456". the next time they enter number in the
cell the number will be showing as "123,456" instead of "123456". I checked
the file and found out even if the cell's format is setup as general, once
user type in "," manually with numbers, the cell format will be changed to
number with use 1000 Separator checked.

how to protect this happened?

Pleae help.

thanks.

 

[Dave Peterson]

How about preformatting the cells as Text

or

Starting the value with an apostrophe: '123,456