Excel is not working as advertised, really take a look.

[Slurry Pumper]

OK folks, I attached the excel file and a snap shot of what it looks like on my screen. I'm no expert, but where I have the =$B$8 shown in the snapshot, it should read AU like it does in cell B8. This program is doing this kind of stuff to me all the time.

How can I get the software to work correctly. Excel is the only software product that I have witnessed this on my computer. With all the other software options I own and use on this particular computer, I have no issues. Is there a special setting that I need to click or unclick. You know a check box that says excel is f-ing with me?

[tonkerthomas]

It could well be just a formatting issue. Select the cell with the formula that's not working, change the format in the little drop-down box of the "number" section in your menus to "General" (it's probably "text" at the moment), click into the formula to edit it and then click back out again. It should update the format to recognise it as a formula rather than a text entry, and then it will work properly.

Annotation 2020-08-31 005606.jpg

EDIT: Just tested this in the sheet you attached and it works. Select the cell, change the format to "General", go into and back out of the formula (f2 to edit, enter to exit), and the formula updates.

[Slurry Pumper]

Wow, I was really ready to give myself the slap upside the head with this one, but it didn't work for me. Did anyone download the file and get the same result that I am getting. I did try the changing format thing, and put the file with that change with this reply.

[tonkerthomas]

I tested and it worked. Make sure you do all these steps:

1. Select cell B16
2. Change format to 'General'
3. With cell B16 still selected, press f2 to edit the cell
4. Press Enter

That fixes your spreadsheet for me here on my machine. My guess is that you didn't edit and enter the cell after changing the format.

[Slurry Pumper]

Thanks for the help. This sounds like a load of crap to go through however. So to be perfectly clear the action of me changing the format from text to general is merely a suggestion on my part, and I need to force the software to "edit" the cell which I just actually edited by selecting the magical F2 key. Hell I even saved and closed the file earlier and that had no effect on this software. I've been utilizing excel for years and have never had a situation like this. I did just buy the software again for myself in April. Is this a new and improved version that has this obscure feature of not doing what I want it to do until I press the magic key? or has this been there all along and in all my years, I have never had the fortuitous opportunity to need such an action?

[tonkerthomas]

There's absolutely nothing new about it - it's been like this for years and in every version of Excel I can remember. It generally happens when you've copied in stuff from other places, especially from text files which don't have the capacity to designate number or formula formats. In a text file, everything is text, even when it looks like a number or a formula. The default setting for every cell in every sheet in every book in Excel is "general" so if you start a sheet from scratch you shouldn't ever have this problem - which means that somebody must have copied in that "text" formatting, albeit unwittingly, at some point. Once you've changed one cell, though, you can copy it and it will take both the formula and the format with it, so you could, for instance, take what's in B16, copy it down to B24, paste it in and that will work fine from the moment you press the "paste" button.

[Slurry Pumper]

Thanks for the knowledge. But when I change it back it seems like a hassle to tell it to edit itself when I did just edit it. Just saying. Thanks again for your help.