Excel text displays incorrectly

[Guest]

I am typing text into a cell in Excel (Office XP). I formatted the cells for
text, and to wrap the text. Text I typed before I formatted the cells (range
of cells), are displaying properly.

But text I have typed after formatting is showing in the cells as #######.
If I double click on a cell, the text appears. Exit the cell, and the
display reverts to ####. I have tried sizing the cells more than large
enough to contain the text, and that is not working.

Anybody have an idea how to fix this?

 

[Jezebel]

It means the value you have entered into the cell is invalid for the number
formatting applied to that cell. Fix it by correcting the number format (eg,
change it to General).

For future reference, Excel questions are better directed to an Excel forum.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In my experience that display means that the number is too long to be
displayed in the current column width.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Jezebel]

That's the most common cause, but there are quite a few situations that
produce that effect, including some that you can't resolve by widening the
column -- which seems to be the OP's problem. Eg, a negative number
formatted as a date.

 

[Guest]

You are correct, changing to general format solved the problem. I had the
cell formatted for text, which I guess is misleading, because it didn't work
with text.

Thanks.