MS Office 2003

I have the following filter in a MS ACCESS query to pull buildings' square
feet in
size ranges in thousands from a range table.

NewRange: Format([Min],"###,") & " " & Format([Max],"###,")

I then move report into Excel to produce graph depicting number of stores in
each ranch.

However, Excel interprets numbers as date format and strangely shows first
entry in date format and remainder in desired format; e.g., 20 30.

Can filter be coded so Excel interprets output as general number?

Thanks