I formatted my cells by:

selecting the range
format|cells|number tab
Number (0 decimals) and red negative numbers.

And that unused cell was formatted as General.

(and I ctrl-clicked on that unused cell after selecting the other range.)

Did you do anything that varied from that?

If yes, explain what you did to see if anyone can duplicate it. (but try it one
more time using this technique.)

Steve wrote:

"Bob Phillips" wrote:
If I highlight several numbers in a column, Excel will indicate the
sum. But it always shows that sum as a positive number, even if
it's
actually negative. Is there any way to change this behavior?

If I selected my cells, then ctrl-clicked on an empty cell (general
format),
then the statusbar showed the sum in general format.
Maybe you could try it as a workaround.

Sounds good, but I just tried it, and there was no change in the
status bar sum. Must be doing something wrong...

I just tried it again (I use xl2003) and when I hit that ctrl-click on
the empty
cell, the number on the statusbar changed from 2 to -2 (it was negative
all the
time).

I'm using xl2000, maybe that's why it doesn't work?

I'm using XL2000 here and it works.

hmmm, wonder what the heck I'm doing wrong...

--

Dave Peterson