Excel equal sign as first character in cell - excel

Question

I'm trying to get an equal sign "=" as first character in a cell to let the cell do a calculation. For example, the A column is representing, when present, the formula like '=12*12' so you can see what's behind the result in the B column. With this behavior I'm trying to let Excel act like a calculator inspired by programs like Speedcruch and Speq.
Unfortunately Excel is doing strange things when I try some code, it looks like the active cell is jumping to a sort of random cell.
Here is what I've got:
What is going wrong here?
Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
Dim KeyCells As Range
' The variable KeyCells contains the cells that will
' cause an alert when they are changed.
Set KeyCells = Range("B1:B1000")
If Not Application.Intersect(KeyCells, Range(Target.Address)) _
Is Nothing Then
If Left(Range(Target.Address), 1) = "=" Then
' Do nothing
Else
Range(Target.Address) = "=" & Range(Target.Address)
Range(Target.Address).Select
End If
End If
End Sub
Changed code:
Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
' Do nothing if more than one cell is changed or content deleted
'If Target.Cells.Count > 1 Or IsEmpty(Target) Then Exit Sub
If Not Intersect(Target, Range("B1:B1000")) Is Nothing Then
' Change the range required
' Ensure target is a number before doing anything
'If IsNumeric(Target) Then
' Stop any runtime errors
On Error Resume Next
' Turn off events so a change doesn’t start an endless loop
Application.EnableEvents = False
Dim Value
Value = Chr(61) & Range(Target.Address).Value
'MsgBox "Value: " & Value 'Range(Target.Address).Value
If Left(Range(Target.Address).Value, 1) <> Chr(61) Then
MsgBox "Value: " & Value
Range(Target.Address).Formula = Value
End If
' Turn events on
Application.EnableEvents = True
' Allow run time errors again
On Error GoTo 0
'End If
End If
End Sub

Answer 1

This code places an equals sign ('=') in front of every entry in column B.
Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
Application.EnableEvents = False
If Not Intersect(Target, Range("B1:B1000")) Is Nothing _
And Left(Target.Value, 1) <> Chr(61) Then
Target.NumberFormat = "#"
Target = Chr(61) & Target.Value
End If
Application.EnableEvents = True
End Sub
To get Excel to not treat the equals sign as a formula indicator, you need to set the NumberFormat property to 'Text', which is done in this line:
Target.NumberFormat = "#"