Entering arithmetic operation

[Joseph N.]

Hello. I'm a 1-2-3 user who is trying to become familiar with Excel. I
have a very basic question, and would appreciate any help from
experienced users.

In 1-2-3, if one opens a sheet and enters "4*5" the cell will show "20".
Entering "10/2" will yield "5". But in Excel, even if the cells are
specifically formatted as Number, it seems to be necessary to put "=" in
front, so that one has to enter "=4*5" or "=10/2". Since the equal sign
is in only one place and not on the extended numeric keyboard, I have to
think that there's another way to do this.

So, the question is whether it is really necessary to add "=" before an
arithmetic operation, or is there an alternative?

 

[flummi]

It is necessary!
If you want to avoid typing it, click on the "=" sign in front of the
formula field right above the column headings.

Hans

 

[Pete]

Or you can type "+" before the numbers, eg +4*5 - Excel will interpret
this as being an expression and will change it to =+4*5.

Hope this helps.

Pete

 

[Peo Sjoblom]

Or you can go to tools>options>transition and select transition formula
entry and then type the way
you used to in 123. However it will screw up date entries if entered with /
as delimiters

--
Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

Portland, Oregon