Get External Data imports wrong format

[Michael]

I set up a database query to update a report. One of the
columns in Access is for phone numbers. When it is brought
over to Excel the phone numbers are not formatted
correctly and they can't be changed to any format
(currency, percentage, etc. Is there any solution to
resolve this?

 

[Anon]

I set up a database query to update a report. One of the
columns in Access is for phone numbers. When it is brought
over to Excel the phone numbers are not formatted
correctly and they can't be changed to any format
(currency, percentage, etc. Is there any solution to
resolve this?

Data, when imported, often becomes text. If it contains anything but the 10
number characters and the decimal separator, this is inevitably the case. If
it only contains these characters, you should be able to coax it to become
numeric by copying a blank cell (formatted as General or numeric, NOT Text),
then selecting the data and using
Edit > Paste Special > Operation Add

Only when it is numeric will you be able to successfully apply a different
format.