Formulas sometimes will not work in a Column or cell?

[Brent Hauver]

I am perplexed a bit with an annoying problem that is user error I am sure:

Most of the time, I can go to a cell and type in =F8+G8 and I get wonderful
number that comes out. But other times the output will be "=F8+G8" and the
whole column is that way? I think that this is because the column is text
format.. so I select the column and format for Numeric- but nothing happens
I still get "=F8+G8"-

What can I do to format that column so I can do some formulas?

Thanks
brent

 

[Dave Peterson]

You're correct about the cell being formatted as text.

But it's not enough to just change the format of the cell to General (or some
number format).

You've got to reenter the formula (F2 followed by enter is enough) so that excel
will see it as a change to reevaluate.

If you've got lots, format the column as some type of number, then
edit|replace
what: = (equal sign)
with: = (equal sign)
replace all.