Need to display values instead of formula; Ctrl + ` doesn't work

[Rachel Garrett]

I'm helping a co-worker with a VLOOKUP in Excel 2003. I type in a
perfectly good formula, and that's all that the cell will display. It
doesn't show the results.

I searched Excel Help and Google, and the only solution I find is to
press Ctrl + `. That doesn't work here. "Ctrl + `" only increase the
width of the column by some apparently random amount.

I also tried switching the cell type to General and retyping the
formula. This doesn't work either.

One of the other tabs in the same worksheet displays formula results
just fine.

Does anyone have advice?

Thanks,
Rachel

 

[Dave Peterson]

I'd try this again:

Tools|Options|View tab|Uncheck formulas if it's checked.

Then if you still see the formula:

Format the cell as General
Select the cell and hit F2 followed by enter (same as reentering the formula)

Make sure that there are no leading spaces before the initial equal sign.