XL: Financial or Accounting AutoFormats Change Number Formats

• Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 4.0, 4.0a, 5.0, 5.0c
• Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh, versions 4.0, 5.0, 5.0a
• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition

SUMMARY

In Microsoft Excel, the AutoFormat command will not change the number format of selected cells unless you choose an Accounting or Financial built-in format.

MORE INFORMATION

While most of the built-in formats change attributes such as cell shading, borders, and fonts, some built-in formats change the number format. The built-in formats that change number formats are the three financial formats (Microsoft Excel version 4.0) and the accounting formats (Microsoft Excel versions 5.0 and 7.0).

This behavior is by design.

The AutoFormat tool in Microsoft Excel provides a fast and efficient way to apply built-in formats. Using AutoFormat can make your worksheet more readable and more professional looking by changing the alignments, borders, fonts, patterns, and shading of selected cells.

Steps to Reproduce Problem

1. In a new worksheet, enter the following values:

       A1: Widget Sales  B1: Southeast    C1: Midwest      D1: Pacific
       A2: Type A        B2: 200          C2: 50           D2: 350
       A3: Type B        B3: 300          C3: 400          D3: 0
       A4: Type C        B4: 150          C4: 200          D4: 175
       A5: TOTALS        B5: =SUM(B2:B4)  C5: =SUM(C2:C4)  D5: =SUM(D2:D4)
   
   

2. Select cells A1:D5.

3. On the Format menu, click AutoFormat.

4. In the list of formats, select Accounting 1 (versions 5.0 and later) or Financial 1 (version 4.0). Then, click OK.

   Note the change in number formats of the cells in rows 2 and 5.

5. On the Format menu, again click AutoFormat.

6. In the list of formats, select Classic 2. Click OK.

REFERENCES

"User's Guide," version 5.0, pages 224-225 "User's Guide 1," version 4.0, pages 246-249