If the Excel cell format is not changing to a number because the Number formatting is not working, take these steps to fix the issue.

Excel will then place a dotted line around the selected cell or cells to let you know that something has been copied (in this case, the formatting), and your cursor will change to a paintbrush icon.

Pro Tip: To open formatting options, just select the cell (s) you want to format and press Ctrl-1 (Mac: Command-1). This actually works for anything in Excel: charts elements, images, etc.

Excel has a surprising limitation that you may not discover until you try to enter more than 15 digits in a cell. The application can only store numbers with15 digits of precision.

Learn how to format numbers in Thousands, Millions, and Billions in Excel and Google Sheets. Use number Formatting to convert numbers.

Use this step-by-step guide to copy format in Excel worksheet columns and rows and improve your data presentation and organization.

Excel's conditional formatting lets you customize how your data displays, from changing colors and shading to adding icons and more. Here's how it works.

Conditional formatting highlights key information in a spreadsheet so it’s easy to see at a glance. This beginner’s guide gets you started using conditional formatting.

It's not easy to fool Excel, but with a few extra clicks, you can work around this odd pasting behavior. If you paste formatted values into a cell with another applied format, the pasted format wins.