How do I see a cell's contents?

[So_Long]

I know this is a dumb question, but bear with me.

When I first started using Excel for Mac, I quickly discovered that I could view a cell's contents by clicking on the cell with my cursor, then looking towards the top of the screen, where the cells contents was displayed in a small window. I was able to modify text by placing my cursor inside that window, then typing or deleting.

For some reason, that window vanished sometime today. I'm not sure what might have caused it to vanish. I did copy one of my spreadsheets, then delete a few hundred rows and several columns. However, I opened an older, unmodified spreadsheet, and it has the same problem.

I clicked View and Window and played with a variety of toolbars, but nothing works. I glanced through some of the Mactopia tutorials, but it's hard to zero in on the right title when I don't even know the name of the feature I'm looking for.

Thanks.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi,

I think what you are looking for is Formula Bar. It's on the View Menu.

-Jim

I know this is a dumb question, but bear with me.

When I first started using Excel for Mac, I quickly discovered that I could
view a cell's contents by clicking on the cell with my cursor, then looking
towards the top of the screen, where the cells contents was displayed in a
small window. I was able to modify text by placing my cursor inside that
window, then typing or deleting.

For some reason, that window vanished sometime today. I'm not sure what might
have caused it to vanish. I did copy one of my spreadsheets, then delete a few
hundred rows and several columns. However, I opened an older, unmodified
spreadsheet, and it has the same problem.

I clicked View and Window and played with a variety of toolbars, but nothing
works. I glanced through some of the Mactopia tutorials, but it's hard to zero
in on the right title when I don't even know the name of the feature I'm
looking for.

Thanks.

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[So_Long]

Thanks for the tip. It turns out the Formula Bar was enabled, but it wasn't showing for some reason. So I just turned it off, then turned it back on, and I'm now back to normal.