Cells formatted with "("@")" don't change when text pasted in (?).

[StargateFan]

I have a column in a targert spreadsheet formatted with "("@")".

When I paste values from the working spreadsheet into this final,
presentation one, the formatting doesn't take until I manually re-type
the numbers in. I'd like to save all that work, if possible.

What can be done here, pls? I've tried pasting in using all the
values found in the top part of the paste-special options, but nothing
I've tried works. Thanks!

p.s., I'm off for a meal break. I've been at this all day without
stopping. <g> I'm seeing by the activity in the ngs that I'm not the
only one.

 

[Bernard Liengme]

Why not try formatting General before pasting?

 

[Dave Peterson]

@ is the number format symbol to format the cell as Text.

And you're formatting any text in that cell so that's it's surrounded by ()'s.

But by copying a number and paste special|values, then excel sees the value as a
number--not Text.

By retyping the value, you're telling excel to see that value as text and the
number format will do its job.

Maybe you can be more specific and use a custom format of something like:
(General);(-General);(0);(@)

Then all the entries (positive, negative, 0 and text) will be surrounded by
()'s. (I didn't need the double quotes, either.)

==========
This is kind of like when a cell is formatted as text and 123 is entered into
that cell.

Just changing the format won't change the underlying value back to a number.
Hitting F2, followed by enter (or reentering the value) will force excel to see
it as a number.