XP/Office 2003

I am merging data fields from Excel 2003 to Pub 2003 using
mail merge functionality

Problem 1
Need to get Positive numbers to move over one space to
left - so align with negative numbers when they have
brackets - this is SA accounting style ie.
500
(500)

Have formatted Excel fields =text(F3,"# ###.00_)") -
which gives correct result in Excel - but does not move
the figure over when merged into Publisher.

Problem 2
Negative numbers still keep the - even when formated as
=text(F3,"(# ###.00)") - even in Excel spreadsheet -
shows up as -(500) - I need to get rid of the minus sign.

Have tried changing settings in regional settings - does
not seem to have helped.

Help plse