leave cells blank until formula applied

[Rita]

I have a spreadsheet with simple calculation formulas in the columns and one
of the columns with the same formula copied and pasted into each cell is
driving me crazy! I just want the cells to be either blank or have a zero
but, instead, the value from the top cell is in all of them. I didn't past
the values only the formula. Am I missing something in the formula or in the
formatting of those cells? Help Please!

 

[tim m]

What does the formula look like? Sounds like the formula is not progressing
as you copy it.

 

[Gary''s Student]

Tools > Options > Calculation > Automatic

 

[Pete_UK]

Perhaps the formula refers to that cell through absolute addressing
(i.e. with $ symbols before the row and column references)

Perhaps your workbook is set to Manual calculation - use Tools |
Options | Calculation tab to set it to automatic.

Perhaps you want your formula to do something like this:

=IF(cell_ref="","",your_formula)

or:

=IF(cell_ref="",0,your_formula)

But we can't really tell as you have not given us the formula that you
are using.

Pete

 

[Rita]

=SUM(B41-C41)+D41

This is the formula. It's set to automatically calculate. I should say that
I am using Excel 2007 maybe.

Again, I appreciate any help. It seems like it should be pretty simple!

 

[Pete_UK]

Well you could change it to this:

=IF(OR(B41="",C41="",D41=""),"",B41-C41+D41)

which will show a blank cell if any of the 3 cells are empty,
otherwise it will show the result (no need for SUM).

Hope this helps,

Pete

 

[Rita]

Thanks Pete_UK

I put the formula in just as you had it (are those "" double quotes?) and
double checked to make sure it was correct. It did not work. the formula is
showing up in the cell. Any other ideas?

thanks so much

 

[Rita]

IF(OR(B41="",C41="",D41=""),"",B41-C41+D41)

This is exactly what I put in, do you see any errors that I missed?

 

[Rita]

They were formatted as numbers, I changed to general and put in the = in and
it seems like it works...woohoo! Thank you so much, I'd give you my first
born but he's 35 and married, I doubt he will go without a struggle.