I have been working for hours in a spreadsheet of recording and projecting financial performance of a company and suddenly the caret symbol appears in the new cell every time I type the equal = sign, and I am then unable to reference another cell or input a function. I can't figure out how this must have been turned on or how to turn it off. I can copy and paste functions starting with equal sign and then back into the formula I want, but not start fresh. I also just discovered that the caret mistakenly replaces the = sign everywhere I type it--even in a comment box. I have used Excel for 30 yrs and never have seen this before. How do I fix this?