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Cell reference displays formula not result !?

  1. #1
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    Cell reference displays formula not result !?

    Hello

    I'm quite experienced Excel user. I've never come across this problem but tinkering in every conceivable way within Excel settings and the solution has eluded me.

    I have added a worksheet created elsewhere (it is a form I need printing, with the data coming from 2 sheets I have created from scratch) which has pre formatted cells for Date and Client Name etc.

    When I try to reference the cell in this added sheet from my 2 sheets, instead of the result, it always displays the formula, not the result.

    I have tried doing it from one of my sheets to reference to this new, and that displays the result and not formula. I can't imagine why it's doing this and I've never seen it happen before.

    Formatting cells, giving cells names rather than the usually adequate of reference to the Cell Number doesn't change things. I wonder if I've picked up some legacy protection from the original form but can't see anywhere in the tools etc that's obvious.

    There's about 50+ cells that need referencing and I got to get this done for work.

    Please help me. This is my first need to post on a Excel Forum as I've always found help or answers from other peeps or internet but this one is making me scratch my head big time.

  2. #2
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    How was the cell formatted when you first entered the formula? If it was text, then it will only show the formula. By simply changing the formatting to general, that will not fix the issue. You will need to edit the formula after you change the format to general (or other format for your liking).

    HTH

    Jason

  3. #3
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    Actually all I;m doing is typing "=" in the cell, navigating to the one I want, and pressing 'Enter'

    The cell will contain a text entry, it doesn't need to be any more dynamic than that. I have tried formatting cell as General, Text, even as a number or date but every time I try something, it still displays the formula rather than the result.

    I don't actually need any of these cells to be formatted much.

    eg. One of the cells is a telephone number. It can be text, general or custom, I don't need it to be anything more than general, but either way the cell displays

    :- " ='Client Contact'!J34:H34 "

    What I want it to show is a the tel. no. we have in the Client Contact Sheet.

  4. #4
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    How is the cell formatted before you type "=" and select the cell? If it is formatted as text prior to entering the formula, it will always show only the formula until you format it to general (or whatever other format you wish), then edit the cell.

  5. #5
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    OK I got you, so I deleted the formula, reformatted the cell as General, then referenced back to the one I want. Now instead of showing the formula, it shows " VALUE! " (with the hash but I can never find it on my Mac kb) LOL

    Really this is strange because I would usually expect it to return what is in the referenced cell if they are set to general.

  6. #6
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    ANYone ELse KnoW why this is HAppenINg ?

  7. #7
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    Do you mean why you have a formula error? If your formula is simply referring to another cell, does that other cell have the same error (#VALUE!)?

  8. #8
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    Check Tools | options |View tab : is the Formulas checkbox ticked? If so untick it.

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