Formula stays displayed in cell

[Guest]

Hi I'm fairly new with functions. I am working with Excel 2003

I wrote a simple function =SUM(A1,A2)
The cell the function is in is cell A3.

What's weird is, the formula is always displayed in the A3 cell. Not in the
background.
The spreadsheet was started by someone else. Would they have some kind of
format that causes this? I've never had this problem before.

Hope I explained this right.
Thanks for your time
Amy

 

[Anne Troy]

Hi, Amy. The cell is formatted as text. Try first formatting the cell as
general. If that doesn't work, select it, and hit Edit-->Clear-->All and
save the file, then re-enter your formula. Also, note that your formula is
much easier written as =A1+A2
*******************
~Anne Troy

www.OfficeArticles.com

 

[Guest]

Amy,

I'm unsure of what formatting problem is causing this but regardless of the
files size you can sidestep the problem. Select All, copy...file new
page...edit, paste special, whatever you need...formulas, values but NOT
FORMAT.

Hope that helps.

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

Just some added experience:

It may be easier written, but this is less robust. Simply hitting the
spacebar in A1 or A2 would cause it to display #Value. Sum is a bit more
robust.

=Sum(A1:A2)

since the cells are contiguous.

 

[Guest]

The "Edit-Clear-All-save file" procedure fixed it!
Thank you all for the tips, and taking time to answer my dilemma.
Amy