This happens when the cell containing the formula is formatted as TEXT.
Change the formula to GENERAL.

Also make sure that the first character in the cell is = and you have not
inadvertently entered ' before =

"Andrew M" wrote:

Sometimes when I link a cell to another in a different spreadsheet it will
only show the formula not the result.
E.g.

The cell shows "='[PNP stockasat220409(1) Working V2 New SKU
identified.xlsx]Stock List - Supplier Informati'!A4"
This is seen, I owuld have expected the value in the cell reference to show.
This is only happening sometimes.
Any ideas on how to correct?
Andrew