Excel Formula displays text of formula
 

This is very confusing to me and will probably be difficult to explain, so
bear with me, please.

Someone sent me a spreadsheet where on the first worksheet they concatenated
two cells =b2&b3 and it displayed the concatenated cells as it should.
However, on worksheet 2, they tried to concatenate two cells again, but this
time, it simply displayed, =c5&g5, not the data it should. I typed =2+3 and
it would not display the result, just the formula.

I inserted a new column away from this column and got it work properly. I
then copied and pasted the formula into the column that was not working and
it did work with the copy and paste. However, if I changed that formula at
all, it quit working and went back to displaying the =c5&g5. Then, from that
point on, any column would not longer display the results, just the formula
itself.

I have looked under Tools and Options and nothing under calculation looked
odd to me. It is set to Automatic.

I have not seen this before, if you know what is causing this, I would
really appreciate some help! It works the same in 2003 and 2007.

Thanks,
Trisha

Excel Formula displays text of formula
 

The column where your formula is is most likely formatted as text. Change the
format to general (or some number format). Now select each formula cell and
hit F2 then <Enter to get the formulas working again.
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"TJAC" wrote:

This is very confusing to me and will probably be difficult to explain, so
bear with me, please.

Someone sent me a spreadsheet where on the first worksheet they concatenated
two cells =b2&b3 and it displayed the concatenated cells as it should.
However, on worksheet 2, they tried to concatenate two cells again, but this
time, it simply displayed, =c5&g5, not the data it should. I typed =2+3 and
it would not display the result, just the formula.

I inserted a new column away from this column and got it work properly. I
then copied and pasted the formula into the column that was not working and
it did work with the copy and paste. However, if I changed that formula at
all, it quit working and went back to displaying the =c5&g5. Then, from that
point on, any column would not longer display the results, just the formula
itself.

I have looked under Tools and Options and nothing under calculation looked
odd to me. It is set to Automatic.

I have not seen this before, if you know what is causing this, I would
really appreciate some help! It works the same in 2003 and 2007.

Thanks,
Trisha

Excel Formula displays text of formula
 

That worked! Thanks so much! I did change it from text to general, but not
the f2 and enter. THANK YOU!

"Jim Thomlinson" wrote:

The column where your formula is is most likely formatted as text. Change the
format to general (or some number format). Now select each formula cell and
hit F2 then <Enter to get the formulas working again.
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"TJAC" wrote:

This is very confusing to me and will probably be difficult to explain, so
bear with me, please.

Someone sent me a spreadsheet where on the first worksheet they concatenated
two cells =b2&b3 and it displayed the concatenated cells as it should.
However, on worksheet 2, they tried to concatenate two cells again, but this
time, it simply displayed, =c5&g5, not the data it should. I typed =2+3 and
it would not display the result, just the formula.

I inserted a new column away from this column and got it work properly. I
then copied and pasted the formula into the column that was not working and
it did work with the copy and paste. However, if I changed that formula at
all, it quit working and went back to displaying the =c5&g5. Then, from that
point on, any column would not longer display the results, just the formula
itself.

I have looked under Tools and Options and nothing under calculation looked
odd to me. It is set to Automatic.

I have not seen this before, if you know what is causing this, I would
really appreciate some help! It works the same in 2003 and 2007.

Thanks,
Trisha