Hi Karen

are you trying the centering & bolding on the same piece of text ... check
that you've actually got the text selected by checking as to what appears in
the formula bar - sometimes text isn't where it appears to be ....
if that's not the problem - can you format ANY cell in the worksheet?
can you format cells in a new worksheet?
what version of excel are you using?

Cheers
JulieD

"Karen" wrote in message
...
What could be happening to a cell when this happens?
It's a file someone else created in Excel. I attempted to
center the data in the cell and I can't do that - I can't
even changed the font. I can't figure out what's
happening. There is no protection at all on the cells or
workbook.

HELP!