It could be a couple of things.

If you see every formula on the worksheet, then you may be looking at formulas.

In xl2003 menus:
Tools|options|view tab|uncheck formulas
(ctrl-~ (ctrl-backquote to the left of the 1/! on my USA keyboard) is the
toggle.

Or the cell could be formatted as text.
Format the cell as General (or anything but text)
Select the cell
Hit F2, then enter (to pretend to edit the formula)

chrishka wrote:

I am trying to do a simple VLOOKUP formula which i have done hundreds of
times before ,but when i do the formula the only reslut in that cell is the
vlookup formula itself. it is as if I have written text into that cell and
not a formula even though it start with an =. i have tried changing the
format of the cell , but nothing seems to work

please help

--

Dave Peterson