Can't remove formatting from copied data in Excel worksheet

[LAP39]

I have an Excel file that I use like a check register. I copy data from my
bank on line and paste it into Excel. Now that I have upgraded to Excel 2007
I can't remove the bank formatting. I have followed ALL THE HELP INSTRUCTIONS
and have looked for something on line but can't seem to get an answer. I try
to remove the currency formatting and change to numbers with 2 decimals and
it won't change. The date is 5 numbers and I can't change to a date format.
As long as the currency icon is in my data I can not create formulas. I get
a #value. In the part of the document that was created in a previious
version of Excel I can change and create formulas.

 

[David Biddulph]

It sounds like you've got text strings where you wanted dates and currency
amounts. Check with ISTEXT() and ISNUMBER().

 

[LAP39]

I am not familiar with the ISTEXT or the ISNUMBER commands. I am a basic
user. What I am doing is highlighting the cells I want to format, right
clicking and selecting the formatting I want, then click OK. But the cells
remain unchanged.

 

[David Biddulph]

Changing the format doesn't change the content. If you have text there
instead of a number, then changing the format won't change the display and
won't give you the values you want. If there are are functions (such as
ISTEXT and ISNUMBER) that you don't understand, look them up in Excel help.
[DATEDIF is the only one that isn't there.]