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Maiko15's avatar
Maiko15
Copper Contributor
Nov 21, 2019

Excel automatically turns text cell into formula

Anytime I have a cell with "@" symbol leading, excel adds an equal sign and turns it into a formula.  Is there any work around for this?  Example: I am looking at sports data so when I type "@ COL" excel automatically turns this into "=@ COL" and then I get a "#NAME?" error in that cell.  This just started in the last day or so.  Microsoft support is telling me this is a feature that was turned on recently and there is no way to turn it off.  I am finding that hard to believe.

 

Thanks for the help!!

excel
Formulas and Functions
office 365

1 Reply

  • IngeborgHawighorst's avatar
    IngeborgHawighorst
    MVP
    Nov 21, 2019

    Hello Maiko15 ,

     

    What you are seeing is a result of the new Dynamic Array formulas, which are currently available to a small subset of people only. The @ sign has a specific function and as you have found, you cannot start a text entry with an @ sign.

     

    If you type a single quote sign, Excel will treat everything after that as text, so you could use

     

    '@ COL

     

    The single quote will not be visible in the cell, only when it is edited.

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