refering to text by formula

[kunngfo]

Hi,
excel dont behave as it use to, when i refer to a text cell it behaves as the formula is text and returns "formula"

suppose cell A1 on sheet1 contains a text "Hellow world". I refer to the cell from sheet2 cell B1 (=sheet1!A1) and it returns "hellow world". But if i would select B1 again by dubble click and press enter it belives its a string and returns "=sheet1!A1". can get rid of this by select the cell ->format->change from text to general -> ok and enter. but if i select it again it start over again and i have to go back into format and once again switch form text to general

it really starts to bug me off cuz i cant change a text formula without needing to fool around afterwards. Ive never had this problem before, i would be verygreatful if somebody could help me out.

[shg]

Excel's behavior hasn't changed.

When you have a cell formatted as General and enter a formula, the cell will pick up the format of (one of) the referenced calls. That's generally convenient behavior, except for when the formula refers to a cell formatted as Text.

For example, if A1, formatted as Text, contains 0123, and in B1 you enter the formula =A1, what you'll see is =A1. Not exactly what you were looking for.
To keep this from happening, change the format in B1 to some other (any other) numeric format before entering the formula.