hi, i want to add brackets to some rows in my spreadsheet, i have tried ="("&A1&")", the thing is, some of my figures appear as small decimal (e.g. 8.63E-07) and and after using ="("&A1&")", it will change my figure to (0.000000863). is there anyway to present it as (8.63E-07)?

If you want to preserve the exact format of the source cell, consider using the following User Defined Function:

Public Function txet(R As Range) As String
Application.Volatile
txet = "(" & R.Text & ")"
End Function


User Defined Functions (UDFs) are very easy to install and use:

1. ALT-F11 brings up the VBE window
2. ALT-I
ALT-M opens a fresh module
3. paste the stuff in and close the VBE window

If you save the workbook, the UDF will be saved with it.

To remove the UDF:

1. bring up the VBE window as above
2. clear the code out
3. close the VBE window

To use the UDF from Excel:

=txet(A1)

To learn more about macros in general, see:

http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm

or

http://www.cpearson.com/excel/Writin...ionsInVBA.aspx
for specifics on UDFs