Not really, if you have your values showing as red with no negative sign
that is a conscious choice you have made when selecting the formats for
those cells and Excel respects it. Why would you then expect Excel to put a
negative sign in when using the status bar. If you make your format such
that it has a negative sign as well as being red then Excel will provide a
negative sign in the status bar. Your problem stems from the fact that the
status bar does not have the facility to show a red font.

--
Regards
Ken....................... Microsoft MVP - Excel
Sys Spec - Win XP Pro / XL 97/00/02/03

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It's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission :-)
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"Steve" <msv@ods.inv> wrote in message
news:qeb0e11jvttsavaf73q66a4h45u5o41l0f@4ax.com...
> Govind <adgraj1@indiatimes.com> wrote:
>>> If I highlight several numbers in a column, Excel will indicate the
>>> sum. But it always shows that sum as a positive number, even if it's
>>> actually negative. Is there any way to change this behavior?
>
>>Are you talking about the sum in the status bar. It does display the sum
>>as negative number as well.
>
> Yep, the status bar. As an example, entered -600 in one cell and +500
> in the next. The status bar says Sum=100.
>
> Just played around with this a bit - apparently Excel does not
> recognize numbers in red as negative, unless they're also in
> parentheses - in spite of the fact that cell formatting provides the
> option of unadorned red numbers to indicate negatives. This must be
> some sorta bug?
>