Default Cell Format Changed?

[B Smith]

Using Excel 2007 - I have a large workbook with 23 worksheets - been using it
for years and have succesfully converted to .xlsx format for a long time and
use it every day.

All of a sudden every empty cell, and any cell not specically formated, in
every worksheet has a default cell format of Date. Every blank column and row
or any cell with not a specific format.

How did the default cell format for this workbook become set to 'Date' from
'General' and how do i fix it?

Any new workbook created is OK.. defaults to 'General' - But, if I add a new
blank worksheet to this particular workbook... it defaults to 'Date' format.

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

B Smith

 

[Dave Peterson]

Just a guess...

Excel workbooks can have styles. If you changed the Normal style (by accident),
you could have changed all the cells that are using that Normal style.

In xl2003 menus, it's under:
Format|style|Normal (chosen from the dropdown)

I think that in xl2007, it's on the Home tab|Style Group (I _think_)

 

[JMD]

I had the same issue occur with an excel workbook which had multiple
worksheets (approximately 40). As in the case with Mr. Smith, I to coverted
an excel file I had been using for years to .xlsx format.

I also thought that just maybe my default settings were accidentally
changed. My research lead me to the "Cell Styles" utility menu as you
described. However, I was unable to reset the cell format (in one shot) for
those cells that suddenly changed from "general" to "date" format. Moreover,
new worksheets created in this workbook now default to the date format
"dd-mm-yy" (the year appears as 1900).

Does anyone know how to fix this issue? I've been researching a solution for
days now with no answers in the microsoft forums or technical support sites.

I have decided to run Office 2003 in the interim until I find out root cause
and fix.

~JMD

 

[Shane Devenshire]

Hi,

Try this,
Choose Home, Cell Styles, right click on Normal (near top left),
Choose Modify from the context menu, and click the Format... button
Select the Number tab and choose General.

If this helps, please click the Yes button

Cheers,
Shane

 

[rakudave]

Shane,

I've taken the liberty of sharing your answer on several other threads that
were referencing this problem. Having worked this morning with several of my
users I am now able to relate the subtleties of style management in Excel to
those in Word. Wow.

Nevertheless, the users I worked with this morning were doubtful that anyone
in our group would have purposefully (or inadvertently) modified the 'Normal'
style in this way. So, the question remains: In all the threads I have
found describing this phenomenon, the writer feels that this happened
spontaneously on a large workbook. It is not out of the question that Excel
2007 contains a bug that causes this style flip.

Do you know if Microsoft's developers are looking at this?

Thanks.

-rakudave

 

[B Smith]

rakudave and Shane,
Thanks for the input on this topic.... My situation continues just as Shane
describes.. and was wondering if there were any futher news or success on
troubleshooting this issue.

--
B Smith
OKlahoma

Shane,

I've taken the liberty of sharing your answer on several other threads that
were referencing this problem. Having worked this morning with several of my
users I am now able to relate the subtleties of style management in Excel to
those in Word. Wow.

Nevertheless, the users I worked with this morning were doubtful that anyone
in our group would have purposefully (or inadvertently) modified the 'Normal'
style in this way. So, the question remains: In all the threads I have
found describing this phenomenon, the writer feels that this happened
spontaneously on a large workbook. It is not out of the question that Excel
2007 contains a bug that causes this style flip.

Do you know if Microsoft's developers are looking at this?

Thanks.

-rakudave