Personally I would never do that. I work in finance and can just imagine
the havoc that would cause when people print out in black and white, as
tables would appear not to add up etc because you wouldn't see the red.

Regards
Ken...................


"Steve" wrote in message
...
Steve wrote:
"Ken Wright" wrote:
Not really, if you have your values showing as red with no negative sign
that is a conscious choice you have made when selecting the formats for
those cells and Excel respects it. Why would you then expect Excel to
put a
negative sign in when using the status bar. If you make your format such
that it has a negative sign as well as being red then Excel will provide
a
negative sign in the status bar. Your problem stems from the fact that
the
status bar does not have the facility to show a red font.

Ok, thanks, that explains it (posted my last message before I saw this
explanation). Of course, it would be nice if there was some kinda
warning or explanation when choosing that cell format option. And
even better if the status bar was capable of showing the color red.

One reason I like to use plain red is that it makes the numbers easier
to read, without the parentheses. A second-best option would be red
with a negative sign. But that doesn't appear to be possible...