Tom’s Tutorials For Excel: Returning text with your formula’s numeric results

Tom’s Tutorials For Excel: Returning text with your formula’s numeric results

I previously posted this example with text, and this example with dates, to show how a custom format can display text in cells without affecting the actual underlying values of those cells.

Today’s example shows how text can be displayed in a cell that returns a numeric result, while keeping that cell’s returned numeric value as a true, unaffected number. Recall, formatting a cell only changes the appearance of the cell’s contents. The cell’s actual value remains unchanged, be it a number, text, or a boolean (True or False) value.

The first picture is a Before and After comparison with a custom format in cell F7.



To make this happen, select your cell and press the Alt+O+E keys.



The Format Cells dialog box will appear.
• Select the Number tab.
• In the Category list, select Custom.
• In the Type field, enter "Total Income: " #,### and click OK.