Excel picks this up from a windows setting:

Windows start button|control panel
regional and language options
regional options tab
click the customize button
currency tab
change the negative currency format to show ()'s.

RobWN wrote:

xl03Pro
What dictates the available options in "format cells-currency"
At work (same version of xl) it has negative values as red with brackets whereas my home version
offers only red with a negative sign.

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Regards
Bob

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Dave Peterson