Formula acting as a string

[Bill H]

I am woking in a workbook that has two sheets.

On sheet2, I have formulas that point to sheet1
='sheet1'!C14

When this formula is first created, it correctly shows the value of the
target field.

However, when I edit the formula to something else, i.e.,
='sheet1'!C15

It displays as a string.

At that point, even if I edit to the origional value, it still shows as a
strings.

Any thoughts on how to get the field to work as a formula again ??

Thanks
Bill H

 

[Pete_UK]

Change the format of the cell to General rather than Text, then double-
click the cell as if to edit it (or press F2) then press <Enter> to
commit the change of format.

Hope this helps.

Pete

 

[Sheeloo]

Do you mean to say that you see the formula in the cell instead of the result?

How do you 'edit' the formula?

 

[Bill H]

I experimented with this a bit more and found that the format of the
problematic cells change to text. If I change the format back to general,
and retype the formula, it functions correctly.

But why is the formatting changing ?

Bill H

 

[Bill H]

Thanks Pete,

Any idea why the format is being reset ?

Thanks
Bill H

 

[Pete_UK]

You're welcome, Bill.

Excel has this habit of changing the format to text if it is bringing
text values from a linked cell - I don't know why the MS programmers
set it up that way.

Pete

 

[Dave Peterson]

Sometimes, this is a useful feature.

If you have a formula that returns a date, for instance. Instead of seeing
39799, you'd see the date nicely formatted.