Decimal points have vanished!

[stedman]

Have files created on a Windows machine in Excel 5/7. The tables have
many entries with decimal points.

On opening the files in Excel X for the Mac, the decimal points are
gone!

Oddly, if I open one of the tables in Word, it shows the decimals.

I've tried reformatting the cell, but it won't let me set a decimal
point. The cells are formatted as "General".

When I try changing it, I get an error message: "Enter a different
value. Your entry cannot be used. Try enteringan integer or decimal
number." But the cell already has a number in it (e.g., 454--which
should be 45.4) and all I want to do is have it display the decimal,
which I fear Excel X doesn't know exists.

Any ideas? I do not want to retype these tables. Nor can I do the
trick of opening in Word & transfering Excel as it loses all the
formulas. I need to keep using the data and entering more formulas, so
I need an automatic fix of some sort.

 

[stedman]

I should add that, while the files were originally created under
Windows, most were opened in Excel 2001 on the Mac at some point, and
were fine.

 

[stedman]

Well, the plot thickened--and I found a solution. Recall, no decimal
points were showing and numbers appeared as 454 rather than 45.4 as
they had been entered. Excel would NOT permit reformatting anything
nor entering decimal. Here's what I tried.

1) I first opened up a new spreadsheet and discovered that it, too,
wouldn't accept decimal numbers. Evertyhing, and I mean everything,
was formatted as text. Put in a column of decimals, they were all left
justified, and a Sum yields 0 (and didn't change with any
reformatting).

Strange, eh?

2) Opened the Normal Workbook template and it, too, wouldn't take
decimals.

Getting weirder, no?

3) I momentarily thought that the upgrade to OS 10.3.8 might have
something to do with this

Perish the thought! Has to be a Microsfot problem not an Apple one!


4) Then I thought about trashing Excel's preferences to see if that
would work, but before I got there, I simply quit Excel and re-started
it.

5) Voila! The new blank workbook that appeared took decimals.

Curiousier and curiouser, right?

6) I then, on the edge of my chair, reopened my main spreadsheet with
all the tables and, yes, you guessed it, decimals appeared everywhere.

I'm back in business.

Hope this helps someone else before they're driven batty.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Hope this helps someone else before they're driven batty.

Thanks for the followup - that's a really weird error.