Referencing Other Sheets

[OverKnight]

This should be so simple; it’s Excel 101, I've done this hundreds of times and I have no idea what I’m now doing wrong. I’m designing a spreadsheet to track the quality control of some medical equipment. There are six of these systems, and they perform three different tests each, so there are three sheets for each system (18 in all). I have included an instruction sheet, which contains fields for the facility name, the system number, the room number where the system is located, and the operator of each system. Each of the 18 sheets reference these fields with a “=Instructions!{column,row}" formula. The formulas for system #1 work, and they work for the facility name and Operator Name on all sheets, but the for systems 2 through 6, the system number and room number return the text of the formula, i.e., =Instructions!L2 should return “System 4”, but “=Instructions!L2” is displayed. I've attached a file showing what's happening. What am I missing?

Thank you.

[BillyRaySpivy]

I think all you need to do is like this for the cells:

In K2:

=Instructions!$F2

In L2:

=Instructions!$F3

I hope that helps

[BillyRaySpivy]

I think all you need to do is like this for the cells:

In K2:

=Instructions!$F2

In L2:

=Instructions!$F3

I hope that helps

[OverKnight]

Thank you; I had tried that, but no joy. It's almost like I'm entering '=Instructions!$F2 (with a leading apostrophe).

[OverKnight]

Pardon the bump to the front of the list. Can anyone explain why some simple references to other sheets aren't working?

Thank you.

[oteixeira]

Hi,
Perhaps the cell where you are entering the reference is formatted as text...

See if it helps.

[OverKnight]

You nailed it! Thanks very much.