sum formulas not returning correct value

[WILLIAM]

In Excel 2000, I have 2 cells being summed, =sum(c10:c11)

The sum however is equal to the contents of c10. If I
change the number in c11, it works fine. It's as if the
contents of the cell are not formatted as a number
although they are, custom format _(*#,##0.0);(*(#,##0.0)..

Any ideas? I'm not an excel expert so anything else you
need just ask...oh one last thing, there is another group
of cells, =sum(g10:g11) that this has been copied from.
There are no errors there.

THANKS

 

[Gord Dibben]

William

If the cell was pre-formatted as text or you imported the number as text all
the re-formatting you do will not change it to a number.

If you have many of these, copy an empty cell. Select your range then Paste
Special>Add>OK>Esc.

This step will turn it into a real number.

Gord Dibben Excel MVP - XL97 SR2 & XL2002