Excel 2008 will not SUM

[DoggieDame]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel I can SUM items just fine in Excel for PC, but when I use the formula bar in Excel for MAC 2008, it just keeping adds cells and never gives a total. I have followed the tutorials and copied the sample formulas into a new blank spreadsheet.
This is the most basic function you can do in formulas and yet it won't do it.

Why do they even make Excel for MAC if it won't work??????

 

[CyberTaz]

No sarcasm intended, but Excel seems to work fine for millions of others, at
least in this regard. The question is "Why are you having the problem?". The
cause is most likely local to your system, but you haven't provided enough
accurate & specific info for a straight answer.

First, what is the update level of your Office 2008 installation? If you
aren't fully updated (12.2.3) that could account for the behavior. Also, be
certain OS X is fully updated (10.6.2) & that disk permissions have been
repaired using Apple's Disk Utility or similar program.

If you continue to have difficulty once those matters have been confirmed
please try to be more clear about what the exact problem is. I'm afraid I
don't understand what you mean by "it just keeping adds cells and never
gives a total". Describe how you're attempting to create your formula & how
you're using the Formula Bar, step-by-step. Details are significant for
anyone here to be able to visualize the situation because what you describe
is highly unusual. Summing in Mac Excel should be no different than in a
Windows version & has always been reliable regardless of method.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[vschweizer]

Hello,

I am also having a problem with SUM in Excel, but only for one file (so far... the problem better not spread!). I'm running Excel 12.2.3.

I downloaded a spreadsheet from the Census Bureau and moved it to a local folder. All numbered data in the cells are formatted as "General." When I tell Excel to SUM values in a column, it always returns "0". Curiously I am able to manually sum the values (i.e., B14+B15+B16+...), and SUM works properly for values in rows.

Any suggestions for how to get SUM working properly again? I guess I will have to do tedious manual addition for now.

 

[vschweizer]

Sorry, I'm new and thought I would be prompted for system information. My computer is running Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5.8) and has a 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

 

[vschweizer]

Issue resolved! The little exclamation point, which I too often ignore, explained that all of the data values are preceded by apostrophes.

What a cruel joke by the Census Bureau on Excel users. I bet I wouldn't have had this problem if I donwloaded the .csv file.

 

[CyberTaz]

Good work! And thanks for posting your findings ‹ that may prove useful to
others

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac