I have data already in cells and I want to set the format to this data. When
I set the format nothing happens unless I click on each cell and then the
format becomes active.

This is normal behavior. Simply changing the format of the cell doesn't change
the value of the cell.

And since your numbers were actually text, changing the format from Text to
Number still leaves those values as text.

But you can select an empty cell
edit|copy
select your range to fix
edit|Paste special|check Addition

This will coerce the text numbers to number numbers.



greg1090 wrote:

I have data already in cells and I want to set the format to this data. When
I set the format nothing happens unless I click on each cell and then the
format becomes active.

--

Dave Peterson