The number is padded out to show two decimal places with the letters lbs appearing after it. Because the text “lbs” is part of the format and not the cell contents, the cell still contains a number so ...

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.

When you type a seven-or-ten-digit phone number into an Excel cell that uses the phone number format, Excel will automatically change the way the number looks so that it appears as a phone number.

Right-click the Excel 2003 cell containing the text and select "Format Cells." Click the "Alignment" tab in the Format Cells window. Click the box next to "Wrap Text" to place a check-mark in it.

In Microsoft Excel, you can convert a number into a fraction using the Fraction format. Learn how to display Numbers as Fractions in Excel.