@ is the way Lotus indicated a function. You can enter

@SUM(A10:A100)

in a cell and XL will convert it to

=SUM(A10:A100)

To start your cell with @, prefix it with an apostrophe - the apostrophe
indicates Text, and won't be displayed.

In article ,
joen wrote:

i have one cell a1 that has this in it
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
ii the next b1 i would like to put
@7:30pm
but i keep getting error