"Bob Phillips" <bob.phillips@notheretiscali.co.uk> 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?

>Excel does not per se recognise any format as negative numbers, it
>recognises negative numbers by the fact that they are less than 0, either
>entered as less than zero, or as a result of a calculation. Red, and/or
>parentheses are just a way of showing a number in the visual presentation of
>that cell.

That makes perfect sense - so it must mean that Excel is not capable
of showing the color red in the status line? And therefore, without
formatting the cell to include the minus sign or parentheses, there's
no way to tell whether the Sum is positive or negative?