Newbie Question

[Dan Shelby]

I just created a spreadsheet. Before adding data, I highlighted columns
c,e,f,h etc (one at a time) and clicked on the $ to make these columns
display as currency. I then entered quite a bit of data. While entering
the data, it appeared as currency. After entering all of the data, I began
trying to sum a column. At this point in time, the data seems to have lost
its currency format, e.g., where two dollars and twenty-seven cents formerly
appeared as $2.27 it now appeared as 2.27 and it was left justified. All
efforts to highlight the column, or even to work with a single cell, and
change it back to the currency format failed. Also, when I entered
(example) =sum(c3:c42) into cell c43 and pressed enter, cell c43 contained
the formula instead of the result. If I do these same exact things in a
blank worksheet, things work out like I would want them to do. Apparently,
I have set some switch in the problem worksheet that tells excel not to show
data as currency and also to show the formula instead of the result. I
realize that this is probably a total beginners problem but would appreciate
an answer. I am using Excel 2003 on an XP machine. TIA

 

[Anne Troy]

I don't know why it occurred, Dan, but check the first topic here for how to
quickly fix it:
http://www.officearticles.com/excel/data_cleanup_tips_for_microsoft_excel.htm

*******************
~Anne Troy

www.OfficeArticles.com
www.MyExpertsOnline.com

 

[LavaDude]

Hi Dan ...

Try going into the following menu selection:

Tools\Options... Then pick the "View" tab

Under "Window Options" you may have the "Formula" box checked. Uncheck
this box and this should solve your problem...

LavaDude...

 

[Earl Kiosterud]

Dan,

LavaDude may well be right -- this may be what happened to you. Pressing
the ~ key (Shift and `) toggles it into and out of formula view mode. Maybe
that's how it happened.