Format text as number

[cronnin]

Can anyone explain me the logic behind this behavior? When I first type numbers in cells that are preformatted as text, they cannot be turned into numbers without refreshing, but once you've done this just once, you can change from text to number and back without problem. Why the restriction for the first example?

[FDibbins]

Probably the cell was formatted to text before you started entering anything?

[cronnin]

Yes it was. That's exactly what I'm asking. What's the logic behind that behavior?

Case A:
1. Format cell as text.
2. Enter a number, data becomes text.
3. Format cell as number, data remains text.




Case B:

1. Format cell as text.
2. Enter a number.
3. Format cell as number, data remains text.
4. Refresh cell, data becomes number.
5. Format cell as text.
6. Format cell as number, data becomes number.

edit: In this mode you can seem to jump between Date and Text format, although inside the Excel engine Data remains unrefreshed Number.