The problem is that you have set an option to give you three decimal places.
Some people set it to 2 so they can type 123 to get 1.23 (money)

Use Tools | Options , open the Edit tab and locate the Fixed Decimal box.
Make sure this is unchecked
best wishes
--
Bernard Liengme
Microsoft Excel MVP
http://people.stfx.ca/bliengme


"UNIFI" wrote in message
...
No longer when I open a new spreadsheet in Excel 2003 does my number
format
defaults to general but with an odd formatting. When I enter a
number(example 8), the default format is 0.008. I cannot get the
formatting
to change back so when I enter a number it looks like "8.0".
suggestions?