Simple question about negative numbers

S

Simon77

I'm entering numbers in brackets into a cell and excel automatically changes
them to a - symbol.
How do I keep the brackets and tell excel to show all negative numbers in
brackets ?
 
P

Peo Sjoblom

You have to format the cells, use number>custom and

General_);(General)

or select (1234.10) from the preformatted formats under number>number
which will look like

0.00_);(0.00)

if you put in in the custom
 
O

Otto Moehrbach

Simon
Format your cells to do that. Select a cell or a range of cells, click
on Format - Cells - Number tab - select number. There is a block there
labeled "negative numbers" and gives you several choices for how you want to
display negative numbers. Note that if you choose (1234) that you don't
type in (1234). Instead you type
-1234. Excel will show it as (1234). HTH Otto
 
G

Gord Dibben

Simon

Format the cells to Number>Negatives and choose the (1234.10) format, either
red or black.

Then you can enter the numbers using the -sign as in -2 and in the cell will
show as (2).

Gord Dibben XL2002
 
K

Katherine Coombs

You'll need to set up a custom number format. Go to Format-->Cells and
select custom on the Number Tab. Enter the following:

#,##0;[Red](#,##0)

It will then format all negative numbers as red (delete [Red] if you don't
want this) and within parentheses. AFAIK, there's no way to get it to use
square brackets.

To enter a number as a negative, either enter it as (999) or -999
(substituting 999 for whatever number you would like to enter).

HTH,
Katherine
 
J

JON JON

FYI. Use can use square brackets.

#,##0;[Red]\[#,##0\]

Regards,

Jon-jon

Katherine Coombs said:
You'll need to set up a custom number format. Go to Format-->Cells and
select custom on the Number Tab. Enter the following:

#,##0;[Red](#,##0)

It will then format all negative numbers as red (delete [Red] if you don't
want this) and within parentheses. AFAIK, there's no way to get it to use
square brackets.

To enter a number as a negative, either enter it as (999) or -999
(substituting 999 for whatever number you would like to enter).

HTH,
Katherine
Simon77 said:
I'm entering numbers in brackets into a cell and excel automatically changes
them to a - symbol.
How do I keep the brackets and tell excel to show all negative numbers in
brackets ?
 

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