Can you number a cell in excel?

[jensoutzen]

Yes, well I am not after the bleeding obvious as you have guessed.

One of my colleagues have created a spreadsheet which gets populated with various numbers and then a print of this is handed to a worker. To make the life easier for that worker it would be handy if you could have a little number sitting in the - say - top left corner of the cell which indicates that this is "box number 5" for example.

I can easily create a number in the cell which sits in the corner and is small enough but I cannot then write another number in the cell - ie excell - ofcourse - will only allow a single number to be in a cell.

Can you make something like a predictive formatting that will put a number in the cell as well as an input?

I shall look forward to your responses - have a feeling that I will get the simple and short answer - as in a two letter word

 

[VoG]

Why not add a comment? See http://www.contextures.com/xlcomments01.html

 

[Nalani]

Is this something like what you are lookig for:

<TABLE style="WIDTH: 96pt; BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=128><COLGROUP><COL style="WIDTH: 48pt" span=2 width=64><TBODY><TR style="HEIGHT: 14.4pt" height=19><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 48pt; HEIGHT: 14.4pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" class=xl65 height=19 width=64>Header</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 48pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" class=xl65 width=64>Header</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 30pt" height=40><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 48pt; HEIGHT: 30pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" class=xl66 height=40 width=64>5
12
</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 48pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" class=xl66 width=64>6
24
</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 31.2pt" height=42><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 48pt; HEIGHT: 31.2pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" class=xl66 height=42 width=64>7

</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 48pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" class=xl68 width=64>8
36
</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 28.8pt" height=38><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 48pt; HEIGHT: 28.8pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" class=xl66 height=38 width=64>9

</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 48pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" class=xl67 width=64>10

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Although not the most elequent way to do it, but it can be done. You will have to "recreate" your sheet.

Example: Type 5> hold Alt key and press Enter > type 12 > Enter. Now go back to that cell, highlight the 5 and format the Font to 9 and the 12 to say 12 ( or what ever you prefer)

Drag Copy down and/or across and adjust all your numbers.

Hope that helps

 

[jensoutzen]

Perhaps not the neatest way - but it works!
...and that is all that matters.
That was a great answer and I learned something new - thanks!