Formulas not calculating

[Roddie Grant]

I am being driven nuts by formulas showing as formulas such as
=Input!C12

instead of the result of the formula.

This is NOT
- Being in formula display mode. Other formulas on the sheet work fine;
- Needing to recalculate the sheet - I've run "Calculate" until my click
finger is worn out, and "Automatic" is on anyway;
- Cell formatting - changing to text, number, general, percentage etc makes
no difference.

This has been an occasional problem for some time, but now seems to be
happening every day. Eventually the formulas do calculate, but I can't work
out how to force them - not that I should have to force them anyway!

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks

Roddie Grant

 

[macropod]

Hi Roddie,

For Office 2000-2003, try running Help|Detect & Repair.
For Office 2007, try running Excel Options|Resources|Diagnose.

 

[macropod]

Hi Roddie,

Oops - the is a Mac NG. So -
For Office 2001-2004, try running Help|Detect & Repair.
For Office 2008, try running Excel Options|Resources|Diagnose

 

[Roddie Grant]

Hi Macropod

Thanks for the reply, but I'm baffled where to find "Help|Detect & Repair".
If you meant the Excel Help menu, that isn't one of the options.

This is Excel 2004 for Mac, version 11.5.4.

Thanks

Roddie

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Roddie;

Despite macropod's best of intentions neither version of Mac Office has a
Detect & Repair facility.

What happens if you select the content of the entire sheet then copy & paste
into a new workbook?

Are there any other anomalies you've noticed?

 

[Phillip Jones, C.E.T.]

Pod has that feature mixed up with adobe acrobat.

Internet Explorer has a Feature called self healing in which It will
parse html code that was even written by a Chimpanzee, and make it look
good, it will supply opening closing tags or missing tags. Code in which

 

[CyberTaz]

<snip>

Pod has that feature mixed up with adobe acrobat.

<snip>

Don't think so ... Win Office has the Detect & Repair feature macropod
suggested but it isn't a part of the Mac Office package.

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

 

[macropod]

Ah, so much for cross-platform consistency!

--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]

 

[Roddie Grant]

Hi Bob

Copy and paste doesn't make any difference. The new sheet has the same
problem.

There haven't been any other anomalies.

Regards

Roddie

 

[CyberTaz]

Then I don't know what else to suggest. What you describe can't be
attributed to anything other than corruption & that's the normal way to
clear it up.

Just keep in mind that if the cells with the problem were formatted as text
while or before the formula was typed in -- or if the formula was pasted as
text -- just changing the format of the cell back to General [or anything
else] will not revive the formula. Have you tried retyping the formula
*after* changing the cell format to General?

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

 

[Roddie Grant]

Ahh, that seems to be it - needing to *re-key* the formulas after changing
the cell format.

I think there must have been some inadvertent changing of cells to text
format.

OTOH, I'd regard it as a bug that Excel does not calculate a cell when it's
changed to Number etc.

Thanks for your help - at least I know what to do now.

Regards
Roddie

Then I don't know what else to suggest. What you describe can't be
attributed to anything other than corruption & that's the normal way to
clear it up.

Just keep in mind that if the cells with the problem were formatted as text
while or before the formula was typed in -- or if the formula was pasted as
text -- just changing the format of the cell back to General [or anything
else] will not revive the formula. Have you tried retyping the formula
*after* changing the cell format to General?

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

Hi Bob

Copy and paste doesn't make any difference. The new sheet has the same
problem.

There haven't been any other anomalies.

Regards

Roddie

 

[CyberTaz]

I understand where you're coming from as to the "bug", but if that's what it
is virtually every data management program I've seen in nearly 30 years
suffers from the same one Keep in mind that Excel's features simply
"format" the cell's & their content, they don't dictate what the data type
is -- IOW, if it's entered as text Excel doesn't change your mind for you
nor can it convert declared text to a procedure.

On the same note, however, if the content were originally entered as a
function then changed to Text format then back to General the formula would
continue to work.

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

Ahh, that seems to be it - needing to *re-key* the formulas after changing
the cell format.

I think there must have been some inadvertent changing of cells to text
format.

OTOH, I'd regard it as a bug that Excel does not calculate a cell when it's
changed to Number etc.

Thanks for your help - at least I know what to do now.

Regards
Roddie

Then I don't know what else to suggest. What you describe can't be
attributed to anything other than corruption & that's the normal way to
clear it up.

Just keep in mind that if the cells with the problem were formatted as text
while or before the formula was typed in -- or if the formula was pasted as
text -- just changing the format of the cell back to General [or anything
else] will not revive the formula. Have you tried retyping the formula
*after* changing the cell format to General?

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

Hi Bob

Copy and paste doesn't make any difference. The new sheet has the same
problem.

There haven't been any other anomalies.

Regards

Roddie


On 11/5/09 17:39, in article (e-mail address removed),

Hi Roddie;

Despite macropod's best of intentions neither version of Mac Office has a
Detect & Repair facility.

What happens if you select the content of the entire sheet then copy &
paste
into a new workbook?

Are there any other anomalies you've noticed?