excel.advanced.course - making positive values negative

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excel.advanced.course - Making Positive values Negative

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Christof has attended:
Excel Advanced course

Making Positive values Negative

If I have a spreadsheet with several columns and lines and in all of them are numbers except for the headers how can I make them all negative? I could multiply all of them by -1 but where would I enter the function? Is there an easy way?

RE: Making Positive values Negative

Dear Christof

Thank you for attending Excel Intermediate course.

The question you have asked is quite interesting.

Please use the Excel file that I have uploaded for the following guidance.

There are two things. First if you simply want to make your nos. appear negative ( i.e. only the formatting) then it is quite straight forward.

Step 1: Select all the cells with numbers.
Step 2: Choose Format > Cells from the menu bar
Step 3: Select Custom from the Numbers Tab
Step 4: type [Red]-#,##0 in the text box

NB: if you do not want them to appear in red do not type [Red].

NB: Your no. might look as if they are negative but will be treated as positives. You can check that by clicking on the cell and looking at the formula bar.

The above solution will not be beneficial especially if you are thinking of using the negative numbers for calculations in the future.

There may be other ways which I

 

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Excel tip:

Return to the active cell after scrolling

When I scroll a long way down the screen from a selected cell, I can return to that cell with the Ctrl+Back Space shortcut. The active cell now appears in roughly the middle of the screen.

Shift+Back Space does something similar. Scroll down from the active cell and Shift+Back Space returns me to it and puts the active cell at the top of the screen; scroll up from the active cell and Shift+Back Space returns me to it and puts the active cell at the bottom of the screen.

Note also, that while Ctrl+Back Space will return me back to a selected range, Shift+Back Space only ever returns me to the active cell, which is normally at the top left-hand corner of any selected range.

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