Excel sees cell formulas as constants, will not solve

I have a medium-sized excel 2003 project with several worksheets, some of
them containing data that is imported from several access 2003 querys. In
the beginning everything worked fine, but then I tried to change a cell
reference (from $B1 to $B2) and the worksheet stops automatically calculating
the formula. For example, the cell would read =$B2+$B3, instead of a
numerical value. If I use the "Evaluate Formulae" button on the formula
auditing toolbar it says that "the cell being evaluated contains a constant".
If I go to a new cell and type a simple formula, like =1+1, it has the exact
same problem- the cell reads =1+1, instead of 2. If I highlight the formula
and press F9 if solves correctly, but the formula is replaced by the
solution. If I take a broken cell and fill down with it, relative references
do not change. Existing cells in the same worksheet continue to display
correctly, but if I change them at all they too will become broken, and will
not go back to reading correctly even if I change it back to what it was
before. Cells in other worksheets operate without any problems. Any help on
this problem will be greatly appreciated.

Your cell was formatted as text before you entered the formula. Formatting afterwards doesn't help.
Format as General (or Number) AND RE-ENTER the formula (F2, ENTER)

--
Kind regards,

Niek Otten
Microsoft MVP - Excel

"Derek P" <Derek P@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:3C785212-BB27-434E-97CE-9BDD8AD883DE@microsoft.com...
|I have a medium-sized excel 2003 project with several worksheets, some of
| them containing data that is imported from several access 2003 querys. In
| the beginning everything worked fine, but then I tried to change a cell
| reference (from $B1 to $B2) and the worksheet stops automatically calculating
| the formula. For example, the cell would read =$B2+$B3, instead of a
| numerical value. If I use the "Evaluate Formulae" button on the formula
| auditing toolbar it says that "the cell being evaluated contains a constant".
| If I go to a new cell and type a simple formula, like =1+1, it has the exact
| same problem- the cell reads =1+1, instead of 2. If I highlight the formula
| and press F9 if solves correctly, but the formula is replaced by the
| solution. If I take a broken cell and fill down with it, relative references
| do not change. Existing cells in the same worksheet continue to display
| correctly, but if I change them at all they too will become broken, and will
| not go back to reading correctly even if I change it back to what it was
| before. Cells in other worksheets operate without any problems. Any help on
| this problem will be greatly appreciated.