Hello. I'm a 1-2-3 user who is trying to become familiar with Excel. I
have a very basic question, and would appreciate any help from
experienced users.

In 1-2-3, if one opens a sheet and enters "4*5" the cell will show "20".
Entering "10/2" will yield "5". But in Excel, even if the cells are
specifically formatted as Number, it seems to be necessary to put "=" in
front, so that one has to enter "=4*5" or "=10/2". Since the equal sign
is in only one place and not on the extended numeric keyboard, I have to
think that there's another way to do this.

So, the question is whether it is really necessary to add "=" before an
arithmetic operation, or is there an alternative?

It is necessary!
If you want to avoid typing it, click on the "=" sign in front of the
formula field right above the column headings.

Hans

Or you can type "+" before the numbers, eg +4*5 - Excel will interpret
this as being an expression and will change it to =+4*5.

Hope this helps.

Pete

Or you can go to toolsoptionstransition and select transition formula
entry and then type the way
you used to in 123. However it will screw up date entries if entered with /
as delimiters

--
Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

Portland, Oregon




"Pete" wrote in message
oups.com...
Or you can type "+" before the numbers, eg +4*5 - Excel will interpret
this as being an expression and will change it to =+4*5.

Hope this helps.

Pete