"Debra Dalgleish" wrote:

Thanks for explaining further.

After you type the formula, and before you press the arrow key, press
the F2 key.
You should see the word "Edit" in the status bar, at the bottom left of
the Excel window.

While you're in Edit mode, you should be able to move through the
formula, without the error messages.

ikarius_rb wrote:
I wrote out exactly how it happens in my first post.

I type out the formula first, then, with my cursor at the end of the
formula, I add parentheses from the right side of the formula to the left
side. This means I add closing parentheses before I add opening parentheses.
As soon as I cursor backwards past the closing paren, Excel triggers its
"invalid formula" function.

This is how I've entered formulas in excel since windows 3.1, and it's how I
think and see formulas. No previous version of excel has kicked up a fuss
about it, only now they're trying to get "smarter", and they're completely
bolloxing my productivity.




--
Debra Dalgleish
Excel FAQ, Tips & Book List
http://www.contextures.com/tiptech.html


Thank you very much, that does it!