Sometimes excel likes to help.

Try this on a blank worksheet.
Put today's date in A1 (ctrl-; will work)
Put =A1 in B1

That value in B1 was formatted as a date.

Now format A2 as Text (format|Cells|number tab)
put ASDF in A2
put =A2 in B2
You get the nice result.

Now with B2 selected, hit F2, then enter (pretend you're editing the cell's
formula).

Excel saw the "sending" cell formatted as Text and changed B2 to Text.

The only thing you can do is reformat the formula cell and then F2|Enter to make
it a formula again.

(You can't stop this behavior (as far as I know).)



Matilda wrote:

On a seemingly random basis a cell will display a formula rather than a
value. Audit message says that there is a constant in the formula, though no
value has been changed from a cell that behaves as expected. Is it me?

--

Dave Peterson