Microsoft Office

Entering and Editing Worksheet Data 3
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Fraction: Enables you to choose from among nine fraction formats.
Scientific: Displays numbers in exponential notation (with an E): 2.00E+05 = 200,000; 2.05E+05
= 205,000. You can choose the number of decimal places to display to the left of E.
Text: When applied to a value, causes Excel to treat the value as text (even if it looks like a number).
This feature is useful for such items as part numbers.
Special: Contains four additional number formats (Zip Code, Zip Code +4, Phone Number, and
Social Security Number).
Custom: Enables you to define custom number formats that aren’t included in any other category.
If a cell displays a series of hash marks (such as #########), it usually means that the column
isn’t wide enough to display the value in the number format that you selected. Either
make the column wider or change the number format.
Adding your own custom number formats
Sometimes you may want to display numerical values in a format that isn’t included in any of the other categories.
If so, the answer is to create your own custom format.
CROSS-REF
Excel provides you with a great deal of flexibility in creating number formats — so much so
that I’ve devoted an entire chapter (Chapter 24) to this topic.
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