Currency format not working

[Guest]

After exporting numbers from Quickbooks into Excel (2003), I tried changing
them to a currency format, but the numbers refuse to change.

Original number 3000
What I want $3,000

I also tried General, Text, et all.

Any idea what is going on here? How do I get it to conform?

Thanks!
Amy

Amy

 

[Guest]

It's possible (though unlikely) that your definition of the currency style
has changed. You can rul that out by typing a number in a blank cell and
applying that style. If it's as you expect, then the style definition is
okay.
The likely issue is that you've somehow got text instead of numbers. Just
changing the format won't coerce a string into a numeric value. You can
force the conversion, however. Enter a 0 in some blank cell and copy it
(ctrl+c). Then highlight the numbers you've gotten out of QB and Edit >
Paste Special, select Values and Add, then click OK. That will force the
strings of numbers to be converted into numeric values, to which you can then
apply the currency style.

 

[Guest]

That worked beautifully. Thanks bpeltzer!

It's possible (though unlikely) that your definition of the currency style
has changed. You can rul that out by typing a number in a blank cell and
applying that style. If it's as you expect, then the style definition is
okay.
The likely issue is that you've somehow got text instead of numbers. Just
changing the format won't coerce a string into a numeric value. You can
force the conversion, however. Enter a 0 in some blank cell and copy it
(ctrl+c). Then highlight the numbers you've gotten out of QB and Edit >
Paste Special, select Values and Add, then click OK. That will force the
strings of numbers to be converted into numeric values, to which you can then
apply the currency style.