The = icon disappeared in newer versions of excel (xl2002???).

You can add an = icon
Tools|customize|commands tab|Insert category
(Scroll down the list until you find the = icon)

And drag it to your favorite toolbar (nicely positioned).

It's not quite the same, but maybe it'll be sufficient for you.

scarlette belle wrote:

How do I get an automatic equal sign to appear in the formula bar in Excel
for Microsoft 2003? This happened for me in the 2000 version and I could
just click on it with my mouse pointer, but now all that appears is the
function sign with no equal sign after it. It makes my job a lot more time
consuming to have to type in the equal sign while building formulas. Please
help, anybody?

--

Dave Peterson