Excel: Cross-sheet reference not working - excel

I'm having trouble with a cross-sheet reference within the same file.
On the second tab named "Disclosures & Identification," there is a set of merged cells at D5:G5 which hold text.
On the first tab, there is a reference to that cell. The formula being used is
"='Disclosures & Identification'!D5. Instead of copying the text from the second tab's field, the formula just appears in the cell.
I have tried renaming the tab (in case the & was the problem); I have tried using the entire set of merged cells in the reference (d5:g5); I have saved the file under a new name and updated to Office 2007 format (old version was 2003, but that should have worked anyway); and I have done what I consider an appropriate amount of searching for the answer (with no luck). Does anyone have an idea as to why this might not be working?

There are 2 possible things:
Make sure the format of the cell is not 'Text'. If it is, change to something else, such as 'General' and then double click in the formula bar and press enter.
Make sure that 'Show Formulas' is OFF. You can find the option under the tab 'Formulas'. Otherwise, you can use Ctrl+`

In case the above doesn't work, ensure your list isn't filtered or the filter is set active. Deactivate the filter and try link again.

Related

Excel not displaying results after reopening file, only after manual recalculation

I have a very strange Excel problem that I cannot wrap my head around:
I have the following formula:
=IFERROR(LEFT(INDIRECT(ADDRESS(INT(((ROW()))/4)+2,3,,,"Sheet1")),(FIND(" ",INDIRECT(ADDRESS(INT(((ROW()))/4)+2,3,,,"Sheet1")),1)-1)),"")
which essentially goes through a different sheet and looks for string entries including a space and then returns only the first word and outputs the same results for 4 consecutive rows.
Typing this formula into Excel and executing it manually works. Dragging the formula down a couple rows also works.
When I now save, close and reopen the workbook, the cells are empty. The formula is still present but now it is in array format {} and the results do not show. If I now click on the cells with my mouse and execute them again by pressing enter it calculates correctly. See picture below.
Cells only display result after manual execution
So I know the formula still works. Copying the formula, deleting the entire array and pasting it and dragging it down results again in a working formula.
Does anyone what is causing this strange behavior and how I can fix it?
Many thanks in advance and best regards.
Make Sure your Workbook Calculation is set to Automatic.
Please check once here -
Go to File > Option > Select 'Formulas' on Left > Check under 'Calculation Options' if Workbook Calculation is set to Automatic. If not, make it Automatic and give it a try.
Suggest you rewrite your formula to use OFFSET rather than INDIRECT(ADDRESS. Also, if you're using WEBSERVICE anywhere it is not affected by automatic calculation.

Excel Data Validation list of concrete percentages not working - bug?

I have a cell that needs to hold a user-editable percentage, but it may only contain a multiple of 10% in the range 0%-100%.
My logical solution was to just apply data validation on the cell, and specify it as "List", with the list being "0%,10%,...,100%". This way the users can both type in the number as well as select it from the in-cell drop down list.
However, when I consecutively save & close the workbook and then re-open it again, only the drop down entry works. All attempts to manually enter a percentage lead to Excel disallowing it; it just doesn't recognize the input as valid anymore. Changing the data validation definition a bit and back again makes it all work as expected, but only up to the next re-open of the workbook.
A workaround I found is to specify the valid percentages in a named cell range, and refer to that range in the validation rule; this keeps working even across re-opens of the workbook.
I wonder though if this is truly an Excel 2010 bug, or if it's something particular to my Excel installation? If anyone could test this (especially on other Excel versions), I'd be very grateful.
The steps to reproduce it:
Start a new workbook
Select cell A1 and format it as a percentage
Apply data validation, and
Set 'allow' to "List"
Set 'source' to "0%,10%,20%" (without the quotes)
Keep 'ignore blanks' and 'in-cell dropdown' checked
Verify you can both manually and via the drop-drown list enter one of these choices (you can enter it either as 10% and 0.1)
Save the workbook, close it, and re-open it
Try to enter another percentage, both via the drop-down list and manual entry
Result: manual entry triggers the data validation error prompt...
If this is a genuine bug, I'll post the above mentioned solution as a proper solution. If you have a better one, that is of course welcome as well!
Addition
The workaround I found comes down to:
In the cells C1 to C3 enter the values 0%, 10% and 20% respectively.
Select the range C1 to C3, and name it e.g. "allowedPercentages"
In the data validation for cell A1, set the 'source' to "=allowedPercentages" (without the quotes)

rename excel worksheet without losing formula references

I thought it is going to be quick to what I plan to do but it is getting me no where.
I have a huge excel file with various tabs (i.e worksheets).
The main worksheet (the first tab) is named Inventory. I got a modified version of Inventory worksheet which has lot of changes. So I copied this as 'NewInventory' into the excel file.
I have lot of formulas with lookups pointing to Inventory but I need all of them to reference now to NewInventory.
I can't rename Inventory as InventoryOLD as the references gets changed.
Is there a way I can have all lookup formuals (there are plenty in sheets such as Sh2, Sh3, Sh4 etc) to look at NewInventory instead of Inventory in some simple steps.
Here is an example formula
=VLOOKUP(A2, 'Inventory'!$R$2:$R164104, 1, FALSE)
I don't want to change for one cell and then drag it all the way down and repeat for other cells across various worksheets.
Please suggest.
Head into Replace (+H), expand
Enter "Inventory" in the "Find What" field.
Enter "NewInventory" in the "Replace with" field.
Change "Within" option to "Workbook".
Click "Find All".
Nothing's changes yet, however you can browse down there and see if that nailed everything. If it did .. Replace All.
Viola . done.
I've used this to exactly what you've done in the past, works like a charm. Good luck!

Change default paste options

Since a few hours ago, when I paste with Ctrl+V in Excel 2010, it pastes values, not formulas. It appears that the default has changed, I do not know how.
From what I found, that can only be done assigning the shortcut to a suitable macro (I know I did not do that!).
Any hint on how to change it?
I was copying a range which span hidden cells due to filtering. Then, pasting used "as values" by default. When the copied range did not span any filtered out cell, paste went back to normal.
Something new/unexpected every day (especially when it comes to MS)...

Using Find Replace To Update Worksheet References

I have a report that I must update each week.
Throughout the report are references to another daily report of the format:
20140610_DailyReport
So each week when it comes to updating I am supposed to CTRL+H and replace 20140603_DailyReport with 20140610_DailyReport
The references are used within forumula such as:
SUMPRODUCT(
('Daily\05 May\20140610_Daily_Dashboard.xlsx'!PayDate>=C3)*
('Daily\05 May\20140610_Daily_Dashboard.xlsx'!PayDate<=C4))
But when I try find/replace now excel is opening windows explorer and for each cell where the change is made, I have to select the file in question. It's really annoying.
How can I CTRL+H to update the path of the report being referenced without having to manually select each path for each cell?
Structure your formulae to refer to a variable and use Ctrl+h to change that variable.

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