Excel 2004 v. 11.2.3

[jb]

iMac G5 rev.A OS 10.4.10

I just noticed that one cannot enter a number, in a large enough cell, with 16 or more digits.
The maximum number is 15. If one tries to enter more digits they get displayed as 0’s (zeros).
This is in a cell formatted for Text OR Number with 0 decimal places.
The only way to enter a number with more than 15 digits is to put a letter or another character such as a # sign in front of the number.

Is this one of those MS feature? Mind you, Appleworks 6.2.9 does not allow entering more than 11 digits, it too requiring to put a letter or another character such as a # sign in front of the number for more than 11 digits.

Is there an Excel preference somewhere that would allow more than 15 digits to be entered in a cell?

jb

[Xairbusdriver]

Don't have excel but MarinerCalc Help says the width of the cell determines the display of any number. However, under "Precision->Decimal->Fixed", one can set a value between only -15 and +15. I get basically the same results as you: 12345678901234 displays correctly as 12,345,678,901,234. But 123456789012345 displays in scientific notation. When the precision is set to +15, 12345678901234.567890 displays as 12,345,678,901,235.000000000000000, obviously rounded up but still not displaying 15 'actual' values.

I suppose the calculations and display of numbers had to have some limit to save bytes. And we all know that Mr. Bill figured 640k should be enough for anyone!