Problem Copying Down An Indirect Formula

Today I ran into an odd problem. I typed in values for column A rows 1 through 10 then values for column B rows 1 through 10. then in column C, I made the formula C1=A1/B1. The math was correct it showed 542 in the C1 cell. So I dragged that formula down and it showed 542 in all column C cells which is not correct. And when I went to check to see if the formula was correctly dragged it was. For instance, the formula in C2 is =A2/B2 however the value of that cell showed 542 which was not the correct math/value.

But it gets even more weird. When I click on the Column C cells and then it shows the formula up top in the formula bar and if I put my cursor anywhere in the formula bar and hit Return the formula does not change however the correct value then appears in the Column C cell. It is like the act of putting the cursor in the formula activates it to work properly but until it is activated that C cell shows the value of the cell which it was dragged down from.

This is quite bizarre. Has anyone ever seen this before? I have no idea what is going on. I ran a scan for viruses and none were found. I tried it on several new/different spreadsheets but it keeps happening.

Thanks for any tips on this.

Hello -

I am using Excel 2007. In prior versions of excel, when copying data, if I wanted to copy visible cells only, I would select "Go To, Special, Visible Cells Only" and then copy a range a cells. The default was always set to copy everything (including hidden cells), unless I specifically selected copy visible cells only.

In 2007, the default is somehow set to always copy only visible cells. Sometimes, I want to be able to copy all cells including those hidden but cannot seem to figure out how to swith this default option. I looked under Excel Options and did not see an option there.

I don't want to have to unhide and rehide everything each time i copy. I know i could do the hiding and unhiding via VBA but would prefer not to have to.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Hi there,

I'm very new to Excel, and I'm having trouble figuring a few things out. Hopefully this will be very easy for you guys!

In Sheet 1, I have a column of cells that I would like to also appear in Sheet 2. If I add a new row to the column in Sheet 1, I would also like it to be updated automatically in Sheet 2. Currently, I can get it to show the contents of individual cells from Sheet 1 in Sheet 2 by using this formula in the formula bar for each cell in Sheet 2:

=Sheet1!A3 (or whichever cell it is)

That's fine, but I'd like to just have a formula that will reproduce the entire column (ie. without a fixed range, as new rows are going to be added to the column).

If anyone could point me in the right direction, I'd be very very grateful. Thanks.

In excel, I tried to convert numbers to number format, using
format/cells/number from the category list. But it won't take, and stays
text-like. Any ideas?

I am trying to do a very simple copy and paste of a simple formula in Excel 2007 and nothing seems to be working. Excel will not let me copy and paste a formula and will only paste the value into to workbook. For instance, if I make a very simple spreadsheet such as:
A1 type in 10, A2 type in =A1 (calculated A2 to be 10)
B1 type in 5

And then click the copy on B1, and then click paste special on cell B2, the only options it gives me are text and unicode text and so no matter how I paste, cell b2 will always be populated with a value of 5. I cannot imagine a simpler copy and paste and no matter what I do I can't make this work.
All cells are formatted as general. It seems that all copy and pasting of formulas in my excel has been disabled. If I open any spreadsheet on my computer, I can't copy and paste formulas, but do the exact same thing on the exact same spreadsheet on any other computer and it works no problem.

Any help?

I would like to copy a small table from Word into one cell in an Excel
worksheet. The first column of the table is a list of numbers. I tried
converting the table into text with manual line breaks and tab stops to
divide columns and rows, but that didn't solve my problem.

Excel pastes the data into several rows. When I try to merge them, I
get a warning that the selection contains multiple data values, and
merging into one cell keeps the upper-left most data only.

What I tried that didn't work:
* Formatting the Excel cells as text before pasting the data.
* The various options for "Paste Special." The closest I got was
inserting the table as a Document Object, which could be a workaround,
I guess.
What I am saving for when all else fails:
* The obvious solution of copying row by row into one Excel cell.

The data in the table is information about my dad's medications. I
would like to have reference charts of how to identify the strength of
each tablet by its color and markings. I got the info from the
manufacturers' websites and entered it into tables in Word, which I
would like to copy into a more comprehensive file I am creating in
Excel. The first column of each table is the strength of the tablet,
entered as 1 mg., 2 mg., etc. The subsequent columns describe the
shape, color, and markings. There are 3 tables, each with about 4-5
rows.

Is there a way to copy each one - whether as a table or as text - into
a single Excel cell without losing data?

Many thanks.

Hi,

I use filters a lot at my work. One thing I've noticed is that if I have something filtered and want to copy and paste only what I see from one column to another column right next to it, it will copy what is filtered, but then paste into the unfiltered portion.

Is there some way to copy only what I see when it's filtered, THEN paste only onto the adjancent cells which is also filtered?

For example let's say i have each of the number below in a cell (Fig 1). And then I hide rows 2 -3, so only 1 and 4 is showingI only see 1 & 4 in column A. I want to copy and paste 1 and 4 to the next column over one row so it looks like Fig. 2 when unhidden. Not like Fig. 3.

Fig. 1

1
2
3
4

Fig. 2

1 1
2
3
4 4

Fig. 3
1 1
2 4
3
4

Is there a trick to copy-paste a group of cells into Outlook? I don't want to paste as a picture (shows up as an attachment and is lost when someone else Replies), but formatting is skewed when pasted as an Excel object. Right now I'm recreating the table in Word, then pasting, which doesn't loose formatting.

A specific problem is cells which don't have borders show up with very light grey borders in Outlook. This, I do not want.

TiA

Hey all,

How do you turn off the blinking border around a cell that you are copying while still having it as an active cell? I don't want to have to press "esc" after everytime I copy an item.

Thanks,
Jeremy

I have an excel worksheet that adds two other worksheets in a data
triangle. I copied it to create a new data set and used find &
replace to change the worksheet references to the new ones.

The cells still contain the result of the old formula referring to the
previous worksheets. The only way I can get the formula to return the
correct result is to edit (F2) each cell and press enter. Calc now
(F9) does nothing.

I've seen this before, but this time, I need to calculate many
thousands of cells and don't have time for this workaround.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Don S

I have a formula in cell C1 (=A1/B1). I want to copy this formula down to row C20, however rows A2 to A20 are empty so C2 to C20 show (#DIVO!). Is there something I can put in the formula to make column C be blank until the data is enter into Columns A & B?

Hello All

I wonder if you could help with this one, I have a list of data like this (no spaces or other characters)

JN551122B

What I need to do is split each of the characters in to its own cell

if JN551122B was in cell A1 I'd want to return:

B2 C2 D2 E2 F2 G2 H2 I2 J2
J N 5 5 1 1 2 2 B

The nearest I have got is the right function, but it brings over the preceeding characters, and I need each character in its own cell. Hopefully I could copy/paste a formula and change the reference for each cell value, i.e. 1 would return J, 2 = N, 3 = 5, 4 = 5 etc.

Thanks for your help!

Hello from sunny Madrid

I have created a complex formula to help me calculating Golf handicaps for players.


The formula is in the first cell and I want to drag the formula across to the right to cover the 18 holes.

But ALL the values change and I want some to change and some to stay constant.



How do I tell excel to drag the formula across but keep certain parts of the formula the same..ie ....=D11.... in the formula when dragged across doesn't go D12,D13;D14 in each cells formula and should stay as D11 for all.

Many thanks for your help

Ole

I get the error message "reference is not valid" each time I open my spreadsheet. I get this message three times, and once I am done clicking ok on all three of them, my spreadsheet works just fine. The problem is, I have to send it to a bunch people.

I have a sheet with raw data a sheet with pivot tables a sheet with a dashboard and a simple macro
I don't have any #REF cells either.

Someone has any idea of what could be the problem?

thanks

NA

Ran into a problem I've never seen before. When dragging a cell across that contains a sum equation the result was the following cells with the same value. Inside the cell it showed what would be the correct new equation, but the value was still from the original cell. Any ideas on what's causing this?

If I double click the cell and then hit enter it will re-total the area and then give me the correct value, but I'd obviously rather is just work right the first time.