formula cell format change
 

I have a new "feature" that showed up this week. If I type a formula
referencing cells that have a specific format the format of the formula cell
changes to match.

for example column A has been formated as text. if I type the formaula =A2 &
A3 into B2 (still with the default General format) when I press enter the
format changes to text for B2. the result is correct untill I edit B2 at
which time the result changes to be "=A2 & A3". this only occurs if all of
the source cells have the same format and you are only referencing cells. =A2
& " " & A3 does not change the format of the formula cell.

formula cell format change
 

Hi,

I'm not convinced this is a 'new' feature. When you enter your formula
=A2&A3

Excell tries to be helpful and copies the format which as you note is fine
until you edit this cell and because the format is text you see the formula
and not the result.

I've no doubt this could have been programmed out by Microsoft but there are
more occasions when this is helpful (working with dates and times for
example) then when it's a nuisance like this.

Mike

"agr1259" wrote:

I have a new "feature" that showed up this week. If I type a formula
referencing cells that have a specific format the format of the formula cell
changes to match.

for example column A has been formated as text. if I type the formaula =A2 &
A3 into B2 (still with the default General format) when I press enter the
format changes to text for B2. the result is correct untill I edit B2 at
which time the result changes to be "=A2 & A3". this only occurs if all of
the source cells have the same format and you are only referencing cells. =A2
& " " & A3 does not change the format of the formula cell.

formula cell format change
 

I don't remember excel doing this before the update that also broke the
Clipboard between Excel and Access (started around Dec 12th 2008)

Fritz

"Mike H" wrote:

Hi,

I'm not convinced this is a 'new' feature. When you enter your formula
=A2&A3

Excell tries to be helpful and copies the format which as you note is fine
until you edit this cell and because the format is text you see the formula
and not the result.

I've no doubt this could have been programmed out by Microsoft but there are
more occasions when this is helpful (working with dates and times for
example) then when it's a nuisance like this.

Mike

"agr1259" wrote:

I have a new "feature" that showed up this week. If I type a formula
referencing cells that have a specific format the format of the formula cell
changes to match.

for example column A has been formated as text. if I type the formaula =A2 &
A3 into B2 (still with the default General format) when I press enter the
format changes to text for B2. the result is correct untill I edit B2 at
which time the result changes to be "=A2 & A3". this only occurs if all of
the source cells have the same format and you are only referencing cells. =A2
& " " & A3 does not change the format of the formula cell.

formula cell format change
 

On Dec 19, 3:53*pm, agr1259 wrote:
I don't remember excel doing this before the update that also broke the
Clipboard between Excel and Access (started around Dec 12th 2008)

I think it's been in all the versions of Excel released during this
decade. Perhaps yours was broken.

I always try to avoid Text format unless absolutely necessary. This is
not the only difficulty surrounding it.