Can anyone tell me how I can display the value:
=[long value]
in Excel?

If I format the cell as text, I can put in "=1+1" and it displays as
such just fine. However, if I want to put more than 1023 characters
after the initial "=", I get a "Formula too long" error.

I am not specifying a formula. I just want to display a lot of text
that happens to start with an "=".

Is the only way around this to add a space before the equals sign?
Tell me there's a better way!


--
Steven Wazowski
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Use an apostrophe ' before the equals sign. This will tell Excel to treat
everything as text, but will not display any unwanted characters.

HTH,
Elkar

"Steven Wazowski" wrote:


Can anyone tell me how I can display the value:
=[long value]
in Excel?

If I format the cell as text, I can put in "=1+1" and it displays as
such just fine. However, if I want to put more than 1023 characters
after the initial "=", I get a "Formula too long" error.

I am not specifying a formula. I just want to display a lot of text
that happens to start with an "=".

Is the only way around this to add a space before the equals sign?
Tell me there's a better way!


--
Steven Wazowski
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steven Wazowski's Profile: http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=30199
View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=498823

I believe the key is to not format the cell as text (like use General) and
precede the = with an apostrophe.

--
Jim
"Steven Wazowski"
<Steven.Wazowski.218acn_1136576402.4393@excelfor um-nospam.com wrote in
message news:Steven.Wazowski.218acn_1136576402.4393@excelf orum-nospam.com...
|
| Can anyone tell me how I can display the value:
| =[long value]
| in Excel?
|
| If I format the cell as text, I can put in "=1+1" and it displays as
| such just fine. However, if I want to put more than 1023 characters
| after the initial "=", I get a "Formula too long" error.
|
| I am not specifying a formula. I just want to display a lot of text
| that happens to start with an "=".
|
| Is the only way around this to add a space before the equals sign?
| Tell me there's a better way!
|
|
| --
| Steven Wazowski
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Steven Wazowski's Profile:
http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=30199
| View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=498823
|

Thank you. The apostrophe seems to work, and does not actually end up
in the cell (like a space character would.)

I was going to ask "is this the official way to do it, or just a
hack?", but then I found the following MS KB articles:

- 'Text or number converted to unintended number format in Excel'
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/214233)
- 'How to prevent the automatic creation of hyperlinks'
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291209)

Looks like the leading apostrophe is the way to keep Excel from doing
*anything* with the value. Good stuff!

If there are any caveats, I would love to hear them...


--
Steven Wazowski
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