cell displays formula

[pwermuth]

Hello,

I sometimes run into this phenomena where I change a formula or type in
a new formula and suddenly Excel keeps displaying the formula instead of
results.

This usually happens with a few cells only, i.e. the majority of the
cells just display regular results while only the few affected ones
display the formulas.

I am not in formula auditing mode, so I believe this is pretty much an
Excel bug. But what can I do about it?

Thanks,

Peter

 

[Paul B]

Peter, if the cell is formatted as text it will show the formula, could this
be the case?

--
Paul B
Always backup your data before trying something new
Please post any response to the newsgroups so others can benefit from it
Feedback on answers is always appreciated!
Using Excel 2002 & 2003

 

[Dave Peterson]

Sometimes excel likes to help.

Try this on a blank worksheet.
Put today's date in A1 (ctrl-; will work)
Put =A1 in B1

That value in B1 was formatted as a date.

Now format A2 as Text (format|Cells|number tab)
put ASDF in A2
put =A2 in B2
You get the nice result.

Now with B2 selected, hit F2, then enter (pretend you're editing the cell's
formula).

Excel saw the "sending" cell formatted as Text and changed B2 to Text.

The only thing you can do is reformat the formula cell and then F2|Enter to make
it a formula again.

(You can't stop this behavior (as far as I know).)

 

[pwermuth]

Fantastic. Thank you. I have run into this problem sporadically an
never understood what was going on. I usually solved it by cutting an
pasting from another cell but sometimes that wasn't an option so thi
really helps.

Just entering F2 and Enter alone is not enough though. I needed t
first revert the cell format back to General before doing that. Onl
then did it work