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Some Positive cell values display in RED font

I want to display the values in a financial report (created in Excel 2010) so that the values less than 0 will display with parentheses in Red font. When I apply the following format I get inconsistent results: #,##0);[Red](#,##0) .

Strangely, in certain Excel reports, some positive values are also displaying in Red. Again, only SOME of the values are displaying incorrectly. Does anyone know what causes this? These are formal, regular financial reports that must be correct.

See attached slice of a report.

Thanks for your help.
RedFont-Sometimes-Wrong.xlsx

Steven Harris

The two examples you show are formatted as red text, and are not changed by the conditional formatting.

You can also see that the text color is slightly off from Text Formatting and Conditional Formatting colors:

ChloesDad

Following on from the first post by ThinkSpaceSolutions, the conditional format is only changing values that are <0. If you want to force >=0 values to black then you should add that as an extra condition in the rule that you have already set up.

thutchinson

ASKER

I was fooling around with conditional formatting to see if I could correct it. I guess I chose the wrong red tone.

So, some of the values are actually text and don't easily convert to numbers when formatting is applied? This file is an output from a cloud-based app.

ChloesDad

What are the values that you are concerned about?

Are they in your sample file already posted?

Steven Harris

So, some of the values are actually text and don't easily convert to numbers when formatting is applied?

Conditional formatting is "logical" at this stage and numeric versus text is kind of irrelevant. If it runs across clear text, it would then be <0 and have formatting applied according to your rules. Does that make sense?

I guess the main point would be start fresh with the data (all black text) and re-apply the conditional formatting. If there is an error, provide an example with the error displayed.

thutchinson

ASKER

CloesDad,
The values that I'm "concerned about" are clearly indicated in far right column and Col1 is highlighted in yellow.

ThinkSpaceSolutions,
I will try your suggestion and try taking all values to black first and then apply conditional formatting.

ChloesDad

And by adding the extra conditional format they change to black.

I was referring to the text rather than numbers that you suggested will be imported into the spreadsheet

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Steven Harris

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thutchinson

ASKER

That's the one! Thanks Thinkspace!