Excel 2016: Displaying formulas in the formula bar

Regulus Leonis · 21 Mar 2016

I am using Win 7 Pro 7601 Multiprocessor Free SP1, 64-bit. Intel Core i7-4770, 16GB installed memory. Excel 2016. I have a spreadsheet with formulas, none of which display in the formula bar. All my other spreadsheets display their formulas in the bar.

I have tried the following to display the formulas in their cells: Ctrl `, Show Formulas tab in the Formula Auditing group, and Excel Options>Display options for this worksheet (checked the box for "Show formulas in cells instead..."). When I use either one of these, the cells expand but no formulas appear. I found these functions on this website:
https://www.ablebits.com/office-addi...ormulas-excel/

So it's strange that I can't get the formulas to display by issuing those commands. But all I want is to display the them in the formula bar and that should happen automatically when I select the cell. Is there a way I can fix this?

Ranger4 · 21 Mar 2016

You need to open the Excel spreadsheet in question, click the upper LH corner to Select All & then right click on a cell & select Format Cells, when that opens you should see a Tab that says Protection, select that & untick Hidden. There is also a note there that says you need to check Review tab & check on Protections.

Regulus Leonis · 21 Mar 2016

Sorry, I forgot to mention the cells are not hidden. I don't actually see the Protection tab when I go into Format Cells.

Ranger4 · 21 Mar 2016

This is what I am referring to, from Excel 2013.

Excel 2016: Displaying formulas in the formula bar-excel_protect_cells_2.png

Is your spreadsheet one you created or has it been supplied from someone else. If from someone else it's possible the formulas have been hidden for a reason.

I use Excel 2013 as part of Office 2013 Pro, so it's possible Excel 2016 could be different. Have you clicked on the little ? on the top RH corner near the minimise, maximise, close buttons when in Excel. This will open the help files. When you are there you can do a search on hiding formulas & see if it provides any help.

Regulus Leonis · 22 Mar 2016

I protected and then unprotected to see what would happen. So now I see the Protection tab in Format Cells. You can see it's not hidden and the cell that is highlighted displays the result in the formula bar instead of its formula.
Also, when I copy and paste a cell to a new spreadsheet, it will display only the result in the formula bar regardless of whether I choose Paste or Paste Formula. But it will display the link in the formula bar when I choose Paste Link.

Ranger4 · 22 Mar 2016

You have mentioned this is the only spreadsheet you have this problem with, so what is different about this one?.

Did you create this spreadsheet yourself. Are you on a workplace network.

Regulus Leonis · 22 Mar 2016

The only thing that is different in the faulty spreadsheet is I pasted the formulas in random spots, as shown at the red arrow. Blue arrow shows from where I copied the formula at the red arrow. The other image shows an example of one of my spreadsheets correctly displaying a formula in the formula bar. Cell Z2 is highlighted, right below where I have the formula entered in Z1.

I created all my spreadsheets myself and I do not work on the shared network; I'm working from a drive in my computer. However, the faulty spreadsheet was likely on the shared workplace network at some point. The spreadsheets that are on that drive display the formulas as they should.

Ranger4 · 22 Mar 2016

Probably at some point during the copying process some data has been missed or become corrupted & is not displaying properly.

Short of trying to access the original spreadsheet again & recopying it I can't suggest a solution.

I assume that the drive you refer to, that displays the formulas correctly is at your old work place & no longer accessible.