Formulas not displaying results

  • Thread starter Thread starter James Pittman
  • Start date Start date
J

James Pittman

Hi,
I've run into a very strange problem.

When I type a formula into a cell, it doesn't evaluate.
It just sits there with the formula displayed. So for
instance if I type "=b5", the cell just displays "=b5".
It doesn't calculate.

I've tried going to Tools->Options->Calculation and
turning Automatic on and off.

It's only happening on one work sheet. I haven't benn
able to duplicate the problem in another work sheet.

Ideas?

Jamie
 
Hi James
the cell is probably formated as text. check under 'Formats - Cells'.
change the format back to 'General' hit F2 and Enter in the respective
cell

HTH
Frank
 
Hi James

It sounds as though the cell was formatted as text before you entered the
formula.
Re format the cell as General, then enter the formula
 
James Pittman said:
Hi,
I've run into a very strange problem.

When I type a formula into a cell, it doesn't evaluate.
It just sits there with the formula displayed. So for
instance if I type "=b5", the cell just displays "=b5".
It doesn't calculate.

I've tried going to Tools->Options->Calculation and
turning Automatic on and off.

It's only happening on one work sheet. I haven't benn
able to duplicate the problem in another work sheet.

Ideas?

Jamie
Click to expand...

Your cell is formatted as text. Reformat as General and re-enter the
formula.
 
And one more if it wasn't the Text format.

If all the formulas don't evaluate, maybe you have:

tools|options|View tab
formulas (checked).

Ctrl-`
(ctrl-backquote is a toggle for displaying this)
 
Do you have the "Automatic" checkbox checked in
Tools/Options/Calculation?
---------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Wilson,
This helped me out ALOT!!! Thanks.

Suddenly none of my formulas in Excel worked. This has happene
before. But I think last time I just re-did the spreadsheet fro
scratch and all was fine. I tried that again this time, to no avail.

I have no idea why the formulas stopped working, since I use thi
specific sheet almost daily. I felt it may have been the recen
Windows Update.

Do you have any idea how this feature could get shut off without havin
to browse through the menu? I know I did NOT manually shut it of
(since I didn't know it was there). Keyboard Shortcut?

Thanks again!!!

Mr. Wample
 
MrWampler,

While that calculation setting is saved in the workbook, it's
an application level setting.
Maybe a file in your XLStart directory?
Maybe another file that you opened along with this one?

As an example....
Create a new workbook and set the calculation to Manual.
Now open up any other file and see what the Calculation is
set to. You'll find that it's Manual and if you save it that way
it'll be set to Manual when you open it again.

John
 
And just to add to John's reply.

Remember to take a look in the bottom left corner--on the statusbar.

If you see Calculate, you can be pretty sure you have calculation set for
manual.

(and if you share workbooks with someone who likes manual calculation, you may
have to toggle this setting whenever you open one of their workbooks first!)
 
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