remove a ' to convert a comment to a formula in excel

mathetes--

OK, here's your answer, if you care enough to follow my clumsy explanation.

I have a "master" worksheet which has about 70 columns -- raw data, formulas, derived data, etc. It's too wide (and too much detail) to print for our users. So I made a second worksheet, which uses "stacked" columns (3 lines of report info/club member) to provide all important info on each member:

Member Name     Address                       Phones                   Emails   

John Smith           123 Main St.                H: 123-456-7890    John@home.com

                             Anytown, MD 11111   W: 123-543-2109   John@work.com

                                                                 C:  234-555-1212   John@ourclub.org

Each of those reporting cells (in worksheet 2) refers to a cell in a different column but the same row (that member's row) in the master data worksheet (#1). But when I copy the above 3-line report block in worksheet 2, to make additional report blocks, the member row references get incremented incorrectly (to N+4, instead of N+1). So the "solution" I hit upon (using the tools I know) was to put a ' in front of all the = in the report block. and change the row numbers to ^^ (thus turning off the row reference increments altogether). Then I copied my commented report block 9 times, changed the ^^ to **1, ^^2, ^^3, ..., and ^^0 in the ten blocks that I had. Then I duplicated those ten blocks ten times (I needed 110 rows in the report), and then I selected successive blocks of 10 rows, and changed the ^^ to null, 1, 3, 3, and up to 10. Thus, 20 edits corrected 100 rows. Since each block contained 15 cell references, and I had 110 blocks, I now had 1650 correct cell references, but I couldn't remove the bleeping ' until Alan shared his amazing knowledge.

I am sure there is a better way to have done this, but just like "the best camera is the one you have with you", my rule is "the best solution is the one you know how to do" (including know to ask the Excel forum community when you hit a brick wall!).

Thanks to all of you!

Len

P.S. And yes, a named cell range is WAY better than a text constant!! Thanks...