scatter plots with numbers in general format

I am using the output of a macro that generates a column of numbers in general format. If I attempt to make a scatter plot with this data, Excel 2007 will treat the data as labels and not as numbers. If I simply change the format of this column of numbers from "general" to "number", it still treats the numbers as labels in a scatter plot. The only way that I could find to get the numbers to behave as numbers was to create a new column of numbers by multiplying the first column by unity. The product of this operation produced a column of numbers that behaved like numbers and not labels when used in a scatter plot. I'm looking for a less cumbersome solution to this problem.