Excel Formula Copy Problem

[sqdge]

One of the teachers at my school is having a problem with Excel that has flumoxed me and everyone else who has attempted to help.

 

She has put in a very simple formula (=A1+B1) which calculates fine. However when she then copies the formula down the column, the formula changes with it ok (e.g. =A2+B2, =A3+B3, =A4+B4 etc.) but it merely copies the answer from the first cell instead of running the formula.

 

I'm sure this is really easy to solve, which is where you lot come in....!

[limbo]

If she presses f9 does it then display correctly?

 

If so then she has switched of automatic calculation - look in tools > options > calculation tab > tick the automatic option

[mac_shinobi]

At the bottom right of each cell you should be able to click on the tiny black square and drag and hold and drag down wards and that should copy the formula down but it will do it for the cells to the right of it ie when you drag it down the formula, if not then you need to find the fill down option which is underneath one of the menus ( Cant remember )

 

what is it that she is trying to make it do exactly ?

[sqdge]

At the bottom right of each cell you should be able to click on the tiny black square and drag and hold and drag down wards and that should copy the formula down but it will do it for the cells to the right of it ie when you drag it down the formula, if not then you need to find the fill down option which is underneath one of the menus ( Cant remember )

 

what is it that she is trying to make it do exactly ?

 

It's a very basic thing she's trying to do - something I do hundreds of times - just copy a formula down a column in the spreadsheet. However, I've never known Excel refuse to do it properly. And it's just one instance of Excel, it's every copy she's tried around the school.

 

I have tried the black square doo-dah (sorry, that's the best word I could think of), and all options that go with it, but it still didn't work.

 

I haven't tried the F9 recovery yet, but will report back on Monday...unless she fixes it over the weekend.

[sqdge]

If she presses f9 does it then display correctly?

 

If so then she has switched of automatic calculation - look in tools > options > calculation tab > tick the automatic option

 

The teacher says she owes you a virtual pint.

[limbo]

Does that mean I can get virtually legless?

[sqdge]

Does that mean I can get virtually legless?

 

It depends if you are virtually driving or not. After all, we wouldn't want to promoting virtual irresponsible behaviour would we?!

[bpd]

I'm using Excel 2000. If I have a cell with contents "=C4+D4" (w/o quotes, of course) the spreadsheet shows a value (say 7). If I select the cell and copy it, I get a cell whose content is "7" (again, no quotes). That is to say, Cntrl-C and Cntrl-V is not copying and pasting the formula, it's copying pasting the value computed by the formula. It wasn't always like this - copying formulas used to work, and I have no idea what's changed. I even tried unintalling and reinstalling Office 2000 but the problem remains.

 

Selecting the cell and then dragging the little box in the corner works for contigous blocks (thanks for the tip), but the general problem of copying formulae remains.

 

Any thoughts on this?

[SYNACK]

You could use "paste special" instead, right click on the destination cell and click "paste special" then paste formula and it should work fine. Don't know how the default changed though.

[bpd]

I tried Paste Special - it doesn't work either. It works the same as Ctrl-C, Cntrl-V; that is, it pastes in the value of the computation of the source cell, not the formula.

[clareq]

Try making the formula visible, by pressing Ctrl and that button above tab (what is that called, by the way) At least that will help in troubleshooting.

[MatthewL]

Copy it in and press ALT & Enter rather than just click into another box that might help, I had a similar problem before.

[bpd]

I couldn't get that to work. I selected the source cell, hit Cntrl-C move to the target cell and hit ALT-ENTER but all I got was a beep 0 nothing was pasted. Did you mean for me to do something else?

[SYNACK]

Does it have all the service packs, their up to three now, perhaps it was a bug Download details: Office 2000 Update: Service Pack 3 (SP3)

[bpd]

It did but after the reinstall I didn't get the latest. Thanks for pointing out that I need to update it again.

[MatthewL]

Right click and copy and paste it into the formula bar then press ALT & Enter.

[Sylv3r]

I've seen this happen randomly to quite a few users using Office 2007

[bpd]

I'm glad to hear it's not just me. Is there a known fix for this?

[givings]

I am having the same issue. When I try to use cntr-c or any copy function, what is coped is only coied as the visual text or values. If I reboot, the spreadsheet is fine for some perior of time, but after another 20-30 minutes at work, the copy funtion stops working. Quite frustration with no apparent trigger.

[Stazi]

I am having the same issue. When I try to use cntr-c or any copy function, what is coped is only coied as the visual text or values. If I reboot, the spreadsheet is fine for some perior of time, but after another 20-30 minutes at work, the copy funtion stops working. Quite frustration with no apparent trigger.

I only just started having this EXACT same issue. Our IT couldn't even figure it out, and then by accident I think I found out the cause.

Apparently it seems like Google Chrome is conflicting with Microsoft Excel 2003. It's only recent too; but if I have Google Chrome running it won't copy and past formulas and won't even allow me to right click a cell and choose the way I want to paste, normally.

BUT as soon as I shut down Chrome - BAM! It works normally again. So if you're also running chrome it may be the cause of your problems too. If not, I would try running XL with no other programs running and then see what happens. If it works I would then start running adiditonal programs you usually have running in the background to find out what triggers your issue.

 

Good luck!

 

ETA: I was just going to post the issue on the Google message board and did a quick search for "Excel" and found a bunch of peiople having the same issue. A Google tech replied and said that yif you have Skype "Click to call" installed it's what's causing the issue, so you need to uninstall it and then everything goes back to normal and you can run Chrome and Excel at the same time.

Edited March 28, 2012 by Stazi
Additional info

[lucaslz]

I faced the same situation and I solved unistalling the Skype Click to Call! It is weird, but works!

[Michael]

Does it have all the service packs, their up to three now, perhaps it was a bug Download details: Office 2000 Update: Service Pack 3 (SP3)

 

Technically Office 2000 is unsupported now, although it was a pain in the rear to patch. You needed Service Release 1 or 1a then Service Pack 3 was possible.

 

Thankfully Microsoft have simplified patching with Office 2007 and Office 2010 where you literally drag/drop files into the Updates folder.

[SYNACK]

Technically Office 2000 is unsupported now, although it was a pain in the rear to patch. You needed Service Release 1 or 1a then Service Pack 3 was possible.

 

Thankfully Microsoft have simplified patching with Office 2007 and Office 2010 where you literally drag/drop files into the Updates folder.

Wow, this is an old one and so is Office 2000.

 

I liked the old patching method much better, you could slipstream them so you only installed it once with all the patches. The new method is insane and retarded, you install it then it systematicly spends the next two hours installing over that install with all the updates in the folder one at a time. It is stupid and a step backwards efficiency wise. That is why Office is now pushed out in our base image with all the updates already installed like any other silly unpatchable downlevel bit of cruft would be.

 

Other than that I find the newer versions of Office really good but the update situation irritates me hugely, just like the Windows Vista onwards lack of slipstreaming, you just have to download the SP integrated versions from MVLS if they eventually release them.

[Michael]

You could argue the footprint of Office 2007 and Office 2010 is bigger than Office 2000/2003 anyway, so it will always take longer.

 

Like yourself, I include all applications on a master image and there's only been approx. 20 hotfixes post Office 2010 SP1.

[Nate66873]

One of the teachers at my school is having a problem with Excel that has flumoxed me and everyone else who has attempted to help.

 

She has put in a very simple formula (=A1+B1) which calculates fine. However when she then copies the formula down the column, the formula changes with it ok (e.g. =A2+B2, =A3+B3, =A4+B4 etc.) but it merely copies the answer from the first cell instead of running the formula.

 

I'm sure this is really easy to solve, which is where you lot come in....!

 

Easy fix... Close all web browsers, then rerun excel and it will work. The issue is with a skype browser add-in. I had the same problem this morning. Disabling the add-in in browsers will also allow excel to work.