It may be that each student has their own user profile.
So when each one logs in the regional and language settings are changed accordingly.
Also, there are country options in the Format | Cells dialog box that
you were directed to. The country option is shown for Accounting,
Currency, Date, Time and Special.
--
Jim Cone
Portland, Oregon USA



"Brent Lee"

wrote in message
Thanks!
This is however a document by document solution.
This happens with any new documents.
Surely there is a fix so that all future New documents do not
require this step.
Cheers,
Brent.



"dleo" wrote:
Here is what you do. Highlight all of the cells with the ( ). Go to the
Format menu at the top -- Cells. Under category, choose what type it is
(currency, number, etc.). On the right side towards the bottom there is a box
that will let you select the format of your negative numbers.
nt