I download my bank statements and store them in Excel. the bank has the
annoying habit of displaying debit items as minus quantities with a minus
sign attached. this makes it awkward for manipulating the figures
afterwards. I've tried displaying them in red but they are still shown with
a minus in the bar at the top.is there a way of mass converting this row of
minus figures into ones without the minus sign? I know there is probably a
simple way of doing this but I can't figure it out.i have Windows XP Home
Edition.

thanks

Paul

did you try formatting the row
highlight your range
right click mouse
select format cells
numbers
select the format you want
ok

If you want to actually change the negative values to positive (as opposed to
just displaying them as such), type a -1 in some random cell and copy it.
Then select your debit items and Edit Paste Special, select Values and
Multiply then click OK.

"Paul Bennett" wrote:

I download my bank statements and store them in Excel. the bank has the
annoying habit of displaying debit items as minus quantities with a minus
sign attached. this makes it awkward for manipulating the figures
afterwards. I've tried displaying them in red but they are still shown with
a minus in the bar at the top.is there a way of mass converting this row of
minus figures into ones without the minus sign? I know there is probably a
simple way of doing this but I can't figure it out.i have Windows XP Home
Edition.

thanks

Paul

The easiest way if you have excel 2002 onwards is to select the range, do
datatext to column, click next twice and select advanced, make sure
trailing minus for negative numbers is checked and then click OK twice

--
Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

(No private emails please)


"Paul Bennett" wrote in message
...
I download my bank statements and store them in Excel. the bank has the
annoying habit of displaying debit items as minus quantities with a minus
sign attached. this makes it awkward for manipulating the figures
afterwards. I've tried displaying them in red but they are still shown with
a minus in the bar at the top.is there a way of mass converting this row of
minus figures into ones without the minus sign? I know there is probably a
simple way of doing this but I can't figure it out.i have Windows XP Home
Edition.

thanks

Paul

Insert a helper column with the formula =a1*-1

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway
Computer Solutions

"Paul Bennett" wrote:

I download my bank statements and store them in Excel. the bank has the
annoying habit of displaying debit items as minus quantities with a minus
sign attached. this makes it awkward for manipulating the figures
afterwards. I've tried displaying them in red but they are still shown
with
a minus in the bar at the top.is there a way of mass converting this row
of
minus figures into ones without the minus sign? I know there is probably
a
simple way of doing this but I can't figure it out.i have Windows XP Home
Edition.

thanks

Paul