I was not able to find the solution anywhere so maybe someone would be able to think of something.
I have a spreadsheet where one of the tabs is build from the cell values from another ones. This is built with blunt =Paste!AB2. Everything is refreshing properly apart from 1 column.
It keeps on displaying the formula sytnax rather than value. All settings in Excel are set up for automatic updates. I sent the spreadsheet to my friend and it had exactly the same problem. I really dont understand why.
Any ideas?
I cant add a screenshot as I lack reputation :)
Check the cell types. (Format Cells -> Number Tab) They are probably set to Text.
If so, change the types to General, then re-enter the formula
Related
I have a column of time durations in an Excel sheet that is destroying my week. I wish I could make a custom hhh:mm format for this column, but I am only allowed to edit this sensitive document on SharePoint and Sharepoint does not support custom formats. Consequently, this is the best I can do for time duration:
Works fine. Most of the rows use this format. But inexplicably, many of the rows have this format instead:
This format difference messes with formulas, and as you can you see in the picture the time "duration" is different in the formula box. The time as it appears on the sheet is correct This format resists all attempts at change, and I've looked up quite a few solutions. Reformatting the whole column has no effect. Copy pasting the values in various ways either retains the problem or produces incorrect results. The Text to Columns fix I've read about in a few places gives me the time as it appears in the formula bar, not the (correct) time as it appears in the sheet.
I am extremely desperate for a fix. I appreciate whatever help you can provide. Please keep in mind that I cannot use custom formats on Sharepoint and I cannot edit this document elsewhere.
I am attempting to find a solution with either excel or visual basics.
I have an expanding column of remarks on multiple sheets that I need to search through for a keyword (I’m using the word “change” or “chang” to capture “changing” when needed)
When this keyword is found, I need it to give back the cell address, along with a defined name I’ve set up (one for each sheet).
I was able to make a table on a “summary sheet” to include the “new comment”, address, and defined name, and it works well enough. My only concern now is if I add a new row and therefore add a new comment in the column on one sheet, I will have to go back and add a row to my table, and make sure the address and defined name are also corresponding to that “new comment”. This will get very messy and errors can occur, especially since I could have 20+ sheets.
So far all I have been using is excel formulas. But I have also been playing around with excel macros to try and accomplish this (with no luck).
Any help would be greatly appreciated! And I of course can explain this better if need be.
Edit: I added a picture of the general basis of what I’m trying to accomplish. I can’t add the code I’ve been trying as it’s on my work laptop- so I made a simple mock-up of my sheet to include here. I took pictures of the highlighted cell in sheet 1 to show the formulas, and then a picture of sheet 2.1
It's been quite some time since I used a spreadsheet product. In Excel 2003 there was a series autofill feature. I don't mean the "enter two numbers, highlight, and drag" feature. There was a way to bring up a menu, alt-e-i-s if my muscle memory recalls correctly, that would let you specify a start value, end value and step value. It was incredibly useful.
I really could use this feature in Google sheets. I've been searching for the last 15 minutes and can not find it anywhere. I also checked and it looks like this might not be a feature in MS excel anymore, either. Does anyone know if either product can do this?
You are probably looking for the SEQUENCE function in Google Sheets
=SEQUENCE(11,1,6,2)
Please read more about it here
I have a dynamic list of category options I want to present in some cells using a data validation drop down. This list is ('admin') user-editable, and is located on a sheet named Config in column D. The list has a header cell in D2 and starts at cell D3, and can be as long as needed.
I wrapped the list in a named range called 'Categories', which has the formula:
=Config!$D$3:OFFSET(Config!$D$3,COUNTA(Config!$D:$D)-1,0)
The data validation cells I set to be of type 'list', and as the formula I just refer to this named range:
=Categories
The effect of this is that these cells now have a data validation drop down containing the categories. And when updating the category list, the data validation drop downs update accordingly.
However, today I found out that in Excel 2019 the drop down list behaves as usual (showing the current options), but users are now capable of typing in just about anything in those cells without Excel raising the "invalid data" prompt. This used to work just fine IIRC ever since I started using this technique (before Excel 2010), with Excel giving the users a slap on the wrists when they manually typed non-conforming data. But when I rechecked today in Excel 2019 and even in Excel 2010, it now allows invalid user-typed data without giving any prompt whatsoever.
Looking what actually got broken, I first simplified the formula in the 'Categories' named range to just refer to a fixed range (e.g. Config!D3:D11), but that didn't fix anything; the user is still able to type in anything he wants. I then replaced the formula in the data validation cells with
=indirect("Config!D3:D11")
and that makes Excel recognize invalid user-typed data again. However, by using the indirect formula I can't refer to named ranges, let alone use a formula. And indirect won't update the cell addresses when users move the list source cells around. And using these dynamic-list formulas directly in the data validation formula isn't allowed either.
So is this a genuine Excel bug, introduced somewhere in the last few years, or was this functionality always working this way and was I just not aware of it all this time?
Update
As the answer by #Ghislain said, it is blanks in the option list that causes Excel to suddenly accept anything the user types. And it appears the checkbox "Ignore blanks" controls this behavior.
I intuitively always thought the option meant something like "Allow users to keep the cell blank" or such. Not to lose my sanity, I also checked what Microsoft themselves think it does. Quote from the Excel 2019 help page for the dialog:
Select the Ignore blank checkbox if you want to ignore blank spaces.
And quote from the Excel 2010 offline chm help file:
If it’s OK for people to leave the cell empty, check the Ignore blank
box.
So it seems they themselves also haven't sorted it out quite yet :)
I believe the bug is that in your validation list you have an empty cell, which make any value authorised: I suspect D3:D11 has an empty cell. Is that really a bug?
I'm tying to convert a matrix of data into a list of entries. I have found a few solutions that are close but nothing that I can get working completely. My challenges are I need 4 pieces of information from each row and I want it to be automatic. This Solution was close, but I need something That brings an extra two columns with it.I don't want to have to process the data once it's entered into the Grid.
I created something that works but I feel it's clumsy and there has to be a better way to do it. I have added a Sample Time sheet to my Google drive of what I have created. Essentially I enter the work order, description and pay code on the left. The dates are up top and hours hours worked are entered into the grid. I use a few simple formulas to make a list of every grid cell in the format my finance department needs and then bring it back into the main sheet to sort it. I feel this setup is fragile and it requires manual sort every time info is updated.
Can you help me get from the format on the left to the format on the right with 0 steps. The data arrangement on the left can be modified but the data on the right has to be exactly as show. Mostly I don't know what I'm trying to do is called. It took me longer than I care to admit to find the term "matrix to list." All suggestions are welcome.
Thanks
A Screenshot of the excel sheet for when the google drive link stops working.