Cell Error, Hidden Formatting

[Lee]

I'm trying to sum a column of numbers with =Sum(A2:A5). Excel acts like no
numbers are present. I tried changing cell formating, from general to text
to number with no effect. I can view the numbers but formulas don't seem to
recognize them. any suggestions to fix this would be great.

thanks

Lee

 

[BOONER]

changing the format of the cells will not change the data format. If your
problem is truly that the numbers are stored as text, you have two options:

1. Highlight all of the cells, and click the "!" button that will be visible
to the right of your top most cell, then click convert to number.

2. type 1 into an empty cell, copy that cell, then highlight (A2:A5) and
paste special. Select multiply in the paste special form and press OK.

BN