Is it possible to change the default number format in Excel?

Changing Default Number Format in Excel

1. Open a new Excel workbook.
2. Click on the File tab in the top left corner of the screen.
3. Click on Options in the left-hand menu.
4. In the Excel Options dialog box, click on Advanced in the left-hand menu.
5. Scroll down to the When calculating this workbook section.
6. In the Workbook options section, you will see a drop-down menu labeled Number format. Click on this menu and select the number format you want to use as the default.
7. Click OK to save your changes.

From now on, any new workbooks you create in Excel will use the number format you selected as the default. If you want to change the number format for an existing workbook, you can do so by selecting the cells you want to format, right-clicking on them, and selecting Format Cells. From there, you can choose the number format you want to use.

You can change it, but I bet you won't want to.

You can change the normal style of a workbook by:
format|style|choose normal from the dropdown
click on the modify button and change the format to what you want.

First bad thing:
Styles are kept with workbooks. So you'll have to do this to any new or
existing workbook.

Partial good thing:
You can create a workbook template named book.xlt and store it in your XLStart
folder. If you change the normal style for this template file, then any new
workbook that you start by clicking the New icon on the standard toolbar will
inherit this style.

Second bad thing (and why I bet you won't do it):
Dates are numbers. If you change the normal style to (say) two decimal, then
type a date, you'll see the trouble. (Interesting, (well, to me anyway), typing
a time doesn't cause the same trouble.)

Andrew wrote:

Is it possible to change the default number format in Excel?

--

Dave Peterson

Hi...

Your advice - how does that apply to new Excel? Formatstylenormal doesn't
exist in this version...

For some crazy reason, as of yesterday, every workbook I open auto formats
cells to "Accounting" format (those that used to be "General") - Why is
this?! This is driving me crazy and costing me a lot of time to manually
correct.

Can I turn this off?!

Thanks to help you can offer!

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

You can change it, but I bet you won't want to.

You can change the normal style of a workbook by:
format|style|choose normal from the dropdown
click on the modify button and change the format to what you want.

First bad thing:
Styles are kept with workbooks. So you'll have to do this to any new or
existing workbook.

Partial good thing:
You can create a workbook template named book.xlt and store it in your XLStart
folder. If you change the normal style for this template file, then any new
workbook that you start by clicking the New icon on the standard toolbar will
inherit this style.

Second bad thing (and why I bet you won't do it):
Dates are numbers. If you change the normal style to (say) two decimal, then
type a date, you'll see the trouble. (Interesting, (well, to me anyway), typing
a time doesn't cause the same trouble.)

Andrew wrote:

Is it possible to change the default number format in Excel?

--

Dave Peterson

Try Home tab, Styles Group, cell styles

(I didn't open xl2007 to verify, though.)

Stef Gunn wrote:

Hi...

Your advice - how does that apply to new Excel? Formatstylenormal doesn't
exist in this version...

For some crazy reason, as of yesterday, every workbook I open auto formats
cells to "Accounting" format (those that used to be "General") - Why is
this?! This is driving me crazy and costing me a lot of time to manually
correct.

Can I turn this off?!

Thanks to help you can offer!

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

You can change it, but I bet you won't want to.

You can change the normal style of a workbook by:
format|style|choose normal from the dropdown
click on the modify button and change the format to what you want.

First bad thing:
Styles are kept with workbooks. So you'll have to do this to any new or
existing workbook.

Partial good thing:
You can create a workbook template named book.xlt and store it in your XLStart
folder. If you change the normal style for this template file, then any new
workbook that you start by clicking the New icon on the standard toolbar will
inherit this style.

Second bad thing (and why I bet you won't do it):
Dates are numbers. If you change the normal style to (say) two decimal, then
type a date, you'll see the trouble. (Interesting, (well, to me anyway), typing
a time doesn't cause the same trouble.)

Andrew wrote:

Is it possible to change the default number format in Excel?

--

Dave Peterson


--

Dave Peterson

Styles live in workbooks, so I'm not sure what you could have done to change the
default style of every workbook you opened.

But if you did change the default style in the default workbook template, then
any workbook based on that template would inherit those styles.

Stef Gunn wrote:

Hi...

Your advice - how does that apply to new Excel? Formatstylenormal doesn't
exist in this version...

For some crazy reason, as of yesterday, every workbook I open auto formats
cells to "Accounting" format (those that used to be "General") - Why is
this?! This is driving me crazy and costing me a lot of time to manually
correct.

Can I turn this off?!

Thanks to help you can offer!

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

You can change it, but I bet you won't want to.

You can change the normal style of a workbook by:
format|style|choose normal from the dropdown
click on the modify button and change the format to what you want.

First bad thing:
Styles are kept with workbooks. So you'll have to do this to any new or
existing workbook.

Partial good thing:
You can create a workbook template named book.xlt and store it in your XLStart
folder. If you change the normal style for this template file, then any new
workbook that you start by clicking the New icon on the standard toolbar will
inherit this style.

Second bad thing (and why I bet you won't do it):
Dates are numbers. If you change the normal style to (say) two decimal, then
type a date, you'll see the trouble. (Interesting, (well, to me anyway), typing
a time doesn't cause the same trouble.)

Andrew wrote:

Is it possible to change the default number format in Excel?

--

Dave Peterson


--

Dave Peterson