With the default settings, the Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet editor treats cell contents that begin with an equal sign as a formula. This setting can be changed by changing the format of the cell and thus disabling the use of formulas in the specified area of the spreadsheet. In addition, Excel has settings to enable or disable the display of formulas.
Necessary
Tabular editor Microsoft Office Excel 2010 or 2007
Instructions
Step 1
By default, Excel applies a format called "general" to each cell in a spreadsheet. It implies that an equal sign at the beginning of the cell contents means that a formula is placed in it. This is inconvenient if, in fact, the equal sign is only part of the text. In such cases, the spreadsheet editor usually displays an error message in the formula instead of text. You can fix the problem by changing the cell format to "text". To do this, start by highlighting the desired area of the table - a column, a row, or a specific group of cells.
Step 2
Open the drop-down list located in the top line of the "Number" group of commands on the "General" tab of the application menu. Scroll to the bottom and select the bottom line - "Text". The same can be done in another way - right-click the selected range and select the "Format cells" line in the context menu. Click on the "Text" line in the "Number Formats" list and click the OK button. This completes the procedure.
Step 3
If the cells display formulas instead of their results, it seems that one of the Excel preferences should be changed. To do this, go to the "Formulas" tab and click on the "Show formulas" icon - it is located to the right of the "Influencing cells" inscription in the "Formula dependencies" command group. When enabled, this icon should be highlighted in yellow.
Step 4
Such a defect can be repeated every time the document is opened, if this option is fixed in the Excel settings. To change the corresponding setting, open the main menu of the spreadsheet editor and select "Parameters". In the list of sections, click on the "Advanced" line and scroll the list of settings to the subsection "Show parameters for the next sheet". Uncheck the box "Show formulas, not their values" and click OK. When you close the document, do not forget to save it so that the situation does not repeat itself the next time you load it into the spreadsheet editor.
