"Jedidia" wrote...
....
If I have =B2 & B3 in cell A1, and cell B2 has [test1.xls] and
cell B3 has ws'!$A$1, I get [test1.xls]ws'!$A$1. I am trying
to get =[test1.xls]ws'!$A$1. notice the equal sign is not
present on the first.
....

First, your formula result as-is has unbalanced single quotes. If you really
do have ws!$A$1 in cell B3, then you need '[test1.xls] in cell B2 (note the
initial single quote).

All you need to do is prepend a string containing an equal sign.

="="&B2&B3

and all that this formula will return is the string result

"='[test1.xls]ws'!$A$1"

(assuming you've added the single quote to B2).