Error checking in Excel

Anonymous
2018-10-01T12:44:25+00:00

I have been using the same excel spreadsheet for over a year, without any problems.  For the past coupe of days, a column I have formatted as Number/Special/Zip Code, places an error (triangle in the upper left corner of most cells (but not all) in that column only.   

I go to the Excel Preferences/Error Ckecking and remove the checkmark in the 'Turn on background error checking' and the error indicator disappears until I shutdown and reboot (I can file the document and open it again, without problems).

This is on an iMac (Retina 5k 2017), running the macOS Mohave Version 10.14 with Office 365 with Microsoft Excel for Mac Version 16.17.

Any suggestions would be appreciated...

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-12-11T16:28:52+00:00

    It's become obvious that my point is not getting accross.

    Within Excel preferences, there is ab option to format the data as a Zip Code (see attached).  With advice coming from so many directions and this last submitter being harsh, hinting I don't know what I am doing, it's best to just drop the subject.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-12-10T11:06:14+00:00

    Hi Jacsdad,

    First, regarding the error, based on the article about postal codes, we feel like this is an expected behavior:

    Display numbers as postal codes

    If you refer to the second note, we can see that when saving them as a ZIP code, we do want it to be formatted as text instead of numbers:

    If you're importing addresses from an external file, you may notice that the leading zeros in postal codes disappear. That's because Excel interprets the column of postal code values as numbers, when what you really need is for them to be stored and formatted as text. 

    Right now, we would like to prevent Excel in displaying this error instead. Under Excel's Preferences > Error Checking, there should be a special option to ask Excel to not show errors for Numbers formatted as text.

    We suggest unchecking this option to remove the error.

    We also masked your OneDrive password and we do not recommend sharing your password with anyone. If you would like to share the file, please use the built-in sharing feature instead, so that you can share the workbook with other community members:

    Share OneDrive files and folders

    Regards,

    Sheen

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-12-07T20:31:17+00:00

    The file is on OneDrive ****  The password is ****

    [PII is removed by Alex Chen MSFT Support]

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-12-07T15:50:58+00:00

    Hi Jacsdad,

    Please click on the following link.

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/privatemessage/thread?id=1dfb135d-2097-4671-9df0-503f11f87396

    This will lead you to the Private Message web page. You could send us the sample workbook there.

    Also, please check: Will Turn on background error checking automatically rechecked every time you restart your Mac under the Test User?

    Regards,

    Alex Chen

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-12-07T14:08:50+00:00

    Thanks...

    #1.  when I attach the file (use Insert Image, cannot find Attach file), all I get is a ?.  Not sure what I am doing wrong. . The file is an xlsx format.

    #2.  I contacted Apple support and they walked me through setting up a Test User.  The same condition exists (error indicator) with the Test ID on the same file.

    Over the holiday, I did a few things to see if they would resolve the issue.  They did not.

    I removed all 3rd party software (these are the only apps installed), including Office 365. Adobe Creative Cloud, Malwarebytes and CleanMyMac.  I went through and removed any plist's associated with these apps.  Once complete:

    1. Ran Disk Utilities/First Aid.  All was clean.
    2. Insured there were no updates available for the macOS Mojave 10.14.1 Operating system.
    3. Reinstalled MalwareBytes Premium version and ran report.  Non virus detected.
    4. Reinstalled Office 365 for Mac.  to Version 16.19.  Checked the workbook and the default to Turn on background checking was checked.  Unchecked it.
    5. Reinstalled Adobe Creative Cloud, and CleanMyMac.

    If you can tell me how to get the file too you, I will do so.

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