This is an Excel-wide setting, which means it is applied to all open
workbooks in that instance of Excel.
You can change it (again, for all open workbooks):

ToolsOptionsGeneral, uncheck R1C1 Reference style

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Kind regards,

Niek Otten

"swynne" wrote in message
...
Our company has an Excel document that appears to have been formatted for
excel from something else. The rows and columns both have numbers. If you
open this document all new documents you make have # for rows and columns
until you open an old document that has letters and numbers, then
everything
is great.

What is up with this?