By default, MS Excel will display large numbers in cells using the scientific notation format.

For example, if you were to place the number "1231231231234" into a cell, the resulting display would be "1.23123E+12" as soon as the Enter key was pressed.

Even if you increased the cell width to accommodate 12 characters, Excel will still display the number in scientific notation.

Thankfully, there's a way to display numbers in a format other than scientific notation! The trick is to reformat the cell properties.

Here's how to do it:

1. Select the cells that will hold the larger values and right-click the selection.
    
2. Select Format Cells.
    
3. In the Number tab, select the desired format (e.g., Number) and click OK.

Now when you enter the values that have more than 12 characters, they will be formatted as you specified -- and not using the dreaded scientific notation! ;-)

Wasn't that easy?

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