I've installed Microsoft Office 2000 Professional which worked fine on the old Windows 98 desktop I had. Now that it's running under Windows XP I've encountered a problem with Excel.

When I enter a number in a cell, such as 2, it's shown as 0.02.

I've tried to change the format of the cell but no luck. I can change the format to text and it shows Ok but formulas don't work.

Have you seen this before?

(Originally posted July 2005)

Regards

Harold O'Brien, Mansfield, VIC

Yes, I have seen this Harold and the solution is, luckily, very simple indeed.

As you say, making a number into a text entry means that your formulas don't work so you shouldn't do this even though it appears to work. The problem is a setting in Excel that sets all number cells to 2 decimal places. If you type 200 and press Enter you will find your numbers are entered correctly – Excel formats 200 to two decimal places so the number is 2.00 or 2. However, entering numbers this way, for you, will be tedious so you need to reconfigure Excel to make it perform as you are used to it performing.

To do this, choose Tools, Options, Edit tab and disable the checkbox for Fixed Decimals and click Ok. Now check again and you will find your numbers will enter as expected.

Helen Bradley