Numbers formatted as text - os so you'd think

I am having a problem with Excel. One column in particular is a "number" formatted like “text�. Some of the cells say they are formatted as text, but they are not text. If you try to sort, the program asks you if you would like to sort the "Numbers" and "Text" separately. I have tried formatting the column’s cells as a number, saving, and then reformatting the column & resaving as text. Still, some of the cells say they are text, but are not. The only solution seems to be to turn the column into currency, or scienfitic, and then I am able to see which cells are formatted differently, because their appearance remains unchanged. Then, if I retype the numbers that are in these cells, their fomat matches the appearance of the rest of the numbers in the column - whether it be scientific or currency. Then, I change the entire column back to text. I am linking this spreadsheet as a table in an Access Data Base, but I am unable to trust the results. Any help would be greatly appreciated.