I get a lot of files created from an accounting system that formats data as
"General". I want to format those columns that have numbers in them as
numbers. Generally, just clicking the "," icon will format the cells. But
if a cell has the "General" category, clicking the comma does nothing. I
have to change to General first. It is a pain. Does anyone know a quick
work-around?

Will the Keyboard shortcut of Shift+Ctrl+1 work for you? I admit that this
section:
"But if a cell has the "General" category, clicking the comma does nothing.
I
have to change to General first."

does not make complete sense to me. Can you elaborate?

--
Best Regards,

Luke M
*Remember to click "yes" if this post helped you!*


"Mike H." wrote:

I get a lot of files created from an accounting system that formats data as
"General". I want to format those columns that have numbers in them as
numbers. Generally, just clicking the "," icon will format the cells. But
if a cell has the "General" category, clicking the comma does nothing. I
have to change to General first. It is a pain. Does anyone know a quick
work-around?

Hi Mike,

have you tried clicking on the Increase Decimal icon ?

Hope this helps.

Pete

On Feb 16, 7:58*pm, Mike H. wrote:
I get a lot of files created from an accounting system that formats data as
"General". *I want to format those columns that have numbers in them as
numbers. *Generally, just clicking the "," icon will format the cells. *But
if a cell has the "General" category, clicking the comma does nothing. *I
have to change to General first. *It is a pain. *Does anyone know a quick
work-around? *

There is more going on than I know. In a "typical" spreadsheet even with the
General category selected, clicking the comma changes to add the .00 and adds
commas. However, this file was created from my G/L system and something else
is causing the problem. I have to manually change from General to Number
category and then add the commas. But if I once again click the comma button
on those cells (even though they have the comma) they will "revert" back to
General. I can see nothing that is causing this issue.

Hi Mike,

I can't reproduce your problem. In Excel 2007 (yes, I've upgraded), I
put the number 21.5 in a cell formatted as General. It was still
formatted as General after entering the number. I then clicked on the
Increase Decimal icon, and as well as displaying 21.50, the cell was
then formatted as Number with 2 dp. I clicked the Decrease Decimal
icon to get a display of 21.5, but the cell's format was still set to
Number (now with 1 dp).

I hope you get down to sussing out what is causing the erratic
behaviour.

Pete

On Feb 17, 12:57*pm, Mike H. wrote:
There is more going on than I know. *In a "typical" spreadsheet even with the
General category selected, clicking the comma changes to add the .00 and adds
commas. *However, this file was created from my G/L system and something else
is causing the problem. *I have to manually change from General to Number
category and then add the commas. *But if I once again click the comma button
on those cells (even though they have the comma) they will "revert" back to
General. *I can see nothing that is causing this issue. *

Mike,

I also have an accounting system that produces the same effect. When the accounting system exports the data it is not in a true excel format. When you click the comma it says style not found. One workaround is take another excel spreadsheet move a sheet into the workbook then the comma format will work again. Not sure if this saves much time though.

Hope this helps

Dave

On Feb 17, 12:57*pm, Mike H. wrote:
There is more going on than I know. *In a "typical" spreadsheet even with the
General category selected, clicking the comma changes to add the .00 and adds
commas. *However, this file was created from my G/L system and something else
is causing the problem. *I have to manually change from General to Number
category and then add the commas. *But if I once again click the comma button
on those cells (even though they have the comma) they will "revert" back to
General. *I can see nothing that is causing this issue. *[/quote]

You say this happens even with a new workbook in 2007?

All I can find for this message is found at

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ex...CH100648071033

This workbook contains more unique cell formats than are supported by the
selected file format. Some cell formats will not be saved. In Excel 2007,
you can use 64,000 unique cell formats, but in earlier versions of Excel,
you can only use up to 4,000 unique cell formats. Unique cell formats
include any specific combination of formatting that is applied in a
workbook.

Has your default New workbook been altered by adding a BOOK.xltx into your
XLSTART fiolder?


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

On Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:08:12 +0000, Dave H
wrote:


I am having issues saving a 2007 spreadsheet back to 2003. It is not
possible at this time to upgrade my end users. I have tried copying a
single blank cell into a new workbook deleting any links any named
ranges nothing hidden. When I try to save the new workbook I get
warning "This workbook contains more unique cell formats than are
supported by the selected file format. Some cell formats will not be
saved." Any suggestions on how to figure this out so I can correct the
issue and save a spreadsheet back to excel 2003?