Forum Discussion
HELP! Excel displaying link instead of linked cell value? (='Short List'!D31, instead of Jeff).
Donald McAlister, the problem is if your source cell formatted as text the linked cell is automatically reformatted to text when you enter or edit formula (more exactly when you switch on cell edit mode by clicking on it or by F2)
After that it shows the formula, not linked value.
It's something new for me, but Microsoft published the support article about the issue in April this year https://support.microsoft.com/en-ph/help/135506/cell-linked-to-text-formatted-cell-shows-formula-not-value
I'd recommend to change your source format (column D and others) in Short List sheet on General, when it works. Please note, you have to reformat you column with links in Qualified back to General. I did that for E column (Short List) and Column M (Qualified) in attached.
Donald McAlister, the problem is if your source cell formatted as text the linked cell is automatically reformatted to text when you enter or edit formula (more exactly when you switch on cell edit mode by clicking on it or by F2)
After that it shows the formula, not linked value.
It's something new for me, but Microsoft published the support article about the issue in April this year https://support.microsoft.com/en-ph/help/135506/cell-linked-to-text-formatted-cell-shows-formula-not-value
I'd recommend to change your source format (column D and others) in Short List sheet on General, when it works. Please note, you have to reformat you column with links in Qualified back to General. I did that for E column (Short List) and Column M (Qualified) in attached.
SergeiBaklan I know this solution is several years old at this point, but I just wanted to chime in and say thanks, I had this very same issue come up today and it was driving me nuts. I would have never figured out what the problem was.
Hi Haytham,
I guess that's since we don't use linked cells. But thank you for the sharing, interesting to know that's quite old issue.
Hi Sergei,
This issue is new to me as well!
The surprise is that this issue exists even in earlier versions of Excel (I've reproduced it in Excel 2010)!
Donald, you are welcome. That was useful for me as well, didn't know about that issue before. On the other hand I never use such cell links.
- Got it!
Thanks! I would have never guessed that!
