[jbsylr]

In the "Ship Date" Column date are displayed as the numerical value calculated by Excel instead of mm/dd/yyyy format. In the formula bar the date is displayed correctly. Similarly, the 435 in the "Freight" column should be a currency or accounting formatted field. If I try to add the $ it disappears. Thank you in advance for the help.

[slurpee55]

First, welcome to the forum!
Frankly, the easiest thing to do was to copy your headings to a new workbook and start over. I undid some of your merged cells (not my favorite things, those) but you can change them back.

[The Villan]

Did you import the data?

Sorry Slurpee You are on the ball

[slurpee55]

No problem - in fact, I couldn't get the file to take the correct formatting either. Can you see why?

[The Villan]

I remember something like this before, which if my memory is correct, it has something to do with the way the data was imported.

Starting all over as you have done seems to be the way to go.

[jbsylr]

Thank you again for your quick responses. This is a clean sheet. No imports and the formatting problems are occur while the user is working in it. I tend to believe that the user may be inadvertently hitting a number of keystrokes which are causing the formatting issue. I'm currently unable to verify this.

[The Villan]

Thats very strange then. Who designed the spreadsheet, was it you or the user?

I will have a think on that one.

Are there any macros in the workbook or anthing advanced like that?

[jbsylr]

The user created it. No macros, simple sheet. Just the pretty green border.

[The Villan]

I have had a look at the custom formatting and teher are some weird formatting codes at the bottom of that list. They have been self created and can be deleted.
I think there is a strong possibilty that the spreadsheet is corrupt or has been hit by a virus..

Click on B4 and go into Format Cells...
and select the Number Tab and then select Custom and then scroll down to teh bottom of the list and you shoudl see about 4 or five weird formats.

My siugesstion is to check all the sporeadsheets on that machine and see if any other spreadsheets are the same.

I without a doubt would redo the spreadsheets with a clean workbook. Don't copy anything from theexisting workbook.

[The Villan]

Yep absolutely convinced that there is a virus or macro or corruption.

If you delete all the custom formats anmd then try and format to a normal date and then go and have a look at the custom formats again, you should see new custom formats again.

[slurpee55]

There were some strange formats there...I thought it might be because of language differences or something....

[jbsylr]

Solution found:
The user was using <CTRL>+<TAB> to move between sheets. They must have fat fingered and hit <CTRL>+<~>. This is the hot key combo to turn on and off formulas. Apparently, Excel masks for date, currency, etc are formulas.

[The Villan]

Well done :-)