<Why are so many people suddenly having this problem?

That is not the case. It is simply one of the most frequent questions here.

About formatting as text: if the cell was formatted as text before you entered the function, then happens what you describe. Just
formatting as something else afterwards doesn't help.
Format as General AND re-enter the formula (F2, ENTER). If there are many cells involved, format them as General and do a Find and
replace, replacing "=" with "="


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Kind regards,

Niek Otten

"Rayo K" wrote in message ...
Yesterday I encountered a problem with Excel formulas. Several cells began to
display the formula instead of the result on one of my spreadsheets.

My formula was simple: =$f$1

Instead of displaying the value of F1, it actually displays "=$F$1"

Reviewing the posts from yesterday, I count 4 people posting with the EXACT
SAME PROBLEM.

The symptoms are the same. Cells display the formula instead of the result.
NONE of the proposed solutions help.

I know most of the settings for Excel so I checked the obvious: Are cells
set to calculate automatically: YES. In the view settings are formulas
checked for display: NO. Is there a formula error that causes the formula to
be displayed (extra =): NO

Several people proposed checking whether the format was set to text:

FORMATTING AS TEXT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO DISPLAY FORMULAS!! Formatting as text
should display the formula RESULTS AS TEXT!

Why are so many people suddenly having this problem? Was there a recent
update to Excel that could affect this? Is there a coding error that somehow
was triggered by the date?

Is there anyone who can get to the bottom of this?