Formulas displayed in cell rather than calculated values?

[Don M.]

I have this problem come up at randon about once or twice a year. I always
have my options set to show formula values in a cell, never the formulas
themselves. However, once in a while, when I type in a formula and hit enter,
the formula appears in the cell and not the value.

Today, I typed a new formula over an old formula that was displaying the old
value. When I hit return at the end of the new formula the formula stays in
the cell, not the new value. I can copy the old formula back in from a back
up copy and the values will appear, but if I type the old formula in I get
the formula displayed. I've checked "Excel Options>Advanced>Display Options
for this Worksheet>Show formulas in cells instead of their calculated result"
again and it is still unchecked. I tried saving the file, closing and
reopening but it just comes up the same way.

Very frustrating. What am I doing wrong? I'm not a novice user, but this is
kicking me in the teeth! When I need to make a change, I can't.

Don

 

[p45cal]

2 questions:
1. Are you starting the formula with an '=' before ANYTHING else?
2. How is the cell formatted, straight AFTER you've tried to enter the
formula? Hopefully not as Text.

 

[Eduardo]

Hi,
press CTRL + ~

~ is the key at the left of number 1

 

[Dave Peterson]

You're not doing anything wrong.

Saved from a previous post.

Excel likes to help.

Try this on a test worksheet.
Select A1 and hit ctrl-; (to put the date in the cell)
now select B1 and type: =a1

Notice that excel changed the format of B1 to match the format in A1.

Now format D1 as Text.
put ASDF in D1
put =D1 in E1
You see ASDF.

With E1 selected, hit the F2 key and then enter (to pretend that you're changing
the formula).

Excel has "helped" you by changing that cell's format to text.

I don't know of any way of changing this behavior.

I just select the cell, and reformat it to General (or whatever I wanted). I
hit F2 and then enter (to reenter that formula).

Sometimes this feature is nice, sometimes it ain't.

 

[Teethless mama]

Format cell as: General

 

[Don M.]

Thank you everyone! That was a new to me. Problem solved.

Don