Text saved with ^ and ' sign ??

Hi!
I run XP with Office 2003.
I can't recall that it was like this before, but now text that I type in the cells in excel are saved with either of these two signs in front: ^ or '

so if I write hello, the cells will display hello, but if I click on the cell then the formula line will display ^hello, or 'hello

Can I correct this, and how?
This results for example in the LOOKUP function not working...

please help!

cheers!

Perhaps you can try:

Go to Tools|Options and from the Transition tab uncheck "transition navigation keys"