excel shouldnt need a symbol before the first number in an equati

[Guest]

Whilst excel accepts a number as positive when first entered, why when adding
further entries in the cell do you have to enter a ' +' symbol before the
first number.

Surely it must be intuitive that this is going to be a formula, and that a +
symbol could then be automatically programmed for.

Supercalc (which I used for many years before even Microsoft appeared ) and
Lotus 123 both had this feature, and this saved quite a lot of time and
frustration

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[Bernard Liengme]

Actually it is = that must be used.
For example =12+6 gives 18 but 12+6 gives text
I sometimes wish 12+6 would be recognized as a formula but Excel needs the =
to know that a formula is being entered
best wishes

 

[Gordon]

12+6 gives text

That's what the OP is complaining about - in Lotus if you enter "12+6"
(without the quotes), it automatically recognises it as numbers. Why Excel
should recognise numbers as "text" is beyond me.

 

[dominicb]

Good evening Stewart Katz

Why not go to Tools > Options, Transistion and check the Transitio
Formula Entry box to emulate the 1-2-3 method of entering formulae?

HTH

Dominic