Default Cell Format Changed

**besmith33** · 11-05-2008, 06:04 PM

Using Excel 2007 - I have a large workbook with 23 worksheets - been using it for years and have succesfully converted to .xlsx format for a long time and use it every day.

All of a sudden every empty cell, and any cell not specically formated, in
every worksheet has a default cell format of Date. Every blank column and row or any cell with not a specific format.

How did the default cell format for this workbook become set to 'Date' from
'General' and how do i fix it?

Any new workbook created is OK.. defaults to 'General' - But, if I add a new
blank worksheet to this particular workbook... it defaults to 'Date' format.

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

B Smith

**shg** · 11-05-2008, 06:28 PM

Welcome to the forum.

Sounds like the number formatting for style Normal got changed some date format. Change it back to General.

**besmith33** · 11-05-2008, 06:38 PM

Thanks so much. It was exactly the solution. I fixed the problem in 15 seconds after reading your reply.

I appreciate the quick response... I've been struggling with this for 2 days.

Regards,

**shg** · 11-05-2008, 07:01 PM

Would you please mark the thread as solved?

Click the Edit button on your first post in the thread

Click Go Advanced, select [SOLVED] from the Prefix dropdown, then click Save Changes

If more than two days have elapsed since your first post, ask a moderator to mark it.

**brianguy** · 10-14-2009, 05:42 PM

Only one problem for anyone reading this, in Excel 2007 there is no obvious way to modify the "Normal" style/format. My boss would love for me to fix this problem for him, but there just doesn't seem to be a clear way. I know about the Normal.dot in Word, which has been around since the beginning of time, but nothing about Excel's "Normal" style/format.

I have visited 2 other forums that supposedly had an explanation for modifying the "Normal template" in Excel, and neither one worked. I also tried to use the Excel 2007 Help and it told me I had to reinstall the application to make these topics available, even though I had it installed with all the standard options (I am loyally using Office 2003 for everything else except Email). totally confused at this point.

Thanks

**shg** · 10-14-2009, 05:58 PM

Welcome to the forum, Brian.

Please take a few minutes to read the forum rules, and then start your own thread, and someone will help you sort it out.

Thanks.