Numerical Data Appears with - Sign

[Vince]

MS Office Excel 2003.


For some unknown reason, each time that I enter a number in a cell, it
appears with a - (hyphen) in front of the number after ENTER or moving
out of that cell. This happens throughout a multisheet workbook.

The fx line shows only the number: no hyphen.

Several sheets had already existed in this workbook, and I added an
additional sheet with dates located within Column A. Then I copied
sequential date groups onto separate newly added worksheets.

I added a new worksheet, and this abnormality occurs within the new
sheet also, but not within a new workbook.

Why is the data being entered as a negative number ?

It appears that the cells seem to be expecting a telephone number
format:

(45522217) 421-2214
appears when I increase the number of digits within the entered
number.

How do I turn off this formatting ?

I added available Add-ins just yesterday.

TNX.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

The data's not being entered as a negative number - the formula bar
display shows that.

Format your cells as General, or another Number format.

 

[Vince]

Yep; I eventually did realize that it was not negative numbers, but
did not edit my msg text completely...

TNX. I have changed the formatting for each sheet.



Is there a way to change formatting for the entire workbook ?

 

[JE McGimpsey]

If you group worksheets (select the left-most tab, then shift-click the
right-most), any change you make on the active sheet will be applied to
all sheets. Just make sure to right-click a worksheet tab and choose
Ungroup Sheets before making changes that shouldn't apply to all.