entering formula

I have a workbook with just one worksheet. It's just a list of data imported from Access and saved as a worksheet. When I try to enter a formula ie '=4+4' it goes in as text and will not calculate. I have tried various formatting to no avail. I added a second worksheet to see what happens and this works fine. (XP home, Excel 2003). Any idea's please

Thanks for the reply. Although this found 16 instances and replaced them all it has not cured my problem. There are no formula at all on the spreadsheet as the whole thing runs from macros. Having said that I have started the spreadsheet with macros disabled and get the same results.

A few things to try........
#1 Highlight the entire sheet and press CNTRL + SHFT + ~

#2 Do CNTRL + ~ and then find and replace (CNTRL + H). Replace ' with nothing. Then CNTRL + ~ again.

#3 In an empty cell, type in 1. Then copy it. Then highlight all cells and paste special > multiply.

Any of this help?

ChemistB

Thanks for that.
#1 Didn't seem to do anything
#2 Found about 80 occurences & replaced them.
#3 filled empty cells with zeros.
but my formula still appear as text and therefor will not calculate!

Sounds like it's time to zip your spreadsheet up and upload it to this forum to see if we can find anything.

ChemistB

Not sure how to do that. My zipped file is 170kb.
GB

After you hit "Post Reply" scroll down and there will be "Manage Attachments"
Click and from there, "Browse" and find your file and then "Upload" (lots of people forget that last part).

Note: If your file is really big, send a zipped example containing a subsample which is representative of your problem cells

ChemistB

I've made the file smaller by removing a lot of the data. Click the word 'click' on the top left of the opening screen. The password is 'bill' for worksheet and VB.
GB

Hmmmm, the only place I found formulas as formulas was in row AK. By doing CTRL + `, the formula text disappeared. Unfortunately, everywhere you'd typed FALSE or TRUE became 0 or 1 at the same time.

I went into your options > Transition> Sheet Options and unclicked the Transition Formula Evaluation and Transition Formula Entry and they reverted to True False. Take a look at the modified file I am sending back.

ChemistB

Great! it works Many thanks. How could I have missed that? So back to my original file, Options/ Transition , uncheck as required and .. it doesn't work
What does Ctrl + ' do? Should I highlight cells before doing it?

I've cracked it! Because this spreadsheet works exclusively on VB I hadn't noticed the fact that Options, View, formula was checked. It's a facility I used a lot when checking spreadsheets!

I have now found Ctrl + ' should have done this for me but it doesn't seem to work on my spreadsheet. I'll look into that.

So sorry to have wasted all your time and many thanks for your help.
GB

No Problem, glad I could help.

ChemistB