If you are seeing the formula as text rather than the results, I guess that
the cell is formatted as text.
Format the cell as General, then F2 and enter.

Having solved that, you may find that it is easier to replace
='ex1'!c19+'ex2'!c19+'ex3'!c19 by =SUM('ex1:ex3'!c19)
--
David Biddulph


"snowboardbaltimore" wrote in
message ...
I am trying to sum the totals (in accounting number format) across
multiple
worksheets onto a single worksheet. I have tried manually creating the
necessary formula (='ex1'!c19+'ex2'!c19+'ex3'!c19+....), and also copying
th
formula from a previous worksheet. No matter how I do this, the formula
stays
visible and does not calculate or become anything more than text. Is there
any other way to sum across multiple pages?