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This is not the expected behaviour – it isn’t working the same as “=” did (the blank cell should show “7”).Ĥ) now in a different blank cell (on Sheet1) type “+” then switch to Sheet2 andĬlick: cell A1 “+” … at this point Excel will return abruptly to Sheet1 (if you want to add A2 as before you need to explicitly return to Sheet2). I can’t upload a demonstration but i will describe a simple test setup:ġ) create a workbook with 2 sheets ‘Sheet1’ and ‘Sheet2’Ģ) in Sheet2 col A enter the numbers 3,4 (A1=3 A2=4)ģ) switch to Sheet1 and in a blank cell type “=” then switch to Sheet2 andĬlick: cell A1 “+” cell A2 and return to Sheet1. It turns out that there *IS* a meaningful difference between starting a formula with “=” vs “=+” It helped us unravel a mysterious excel behaviour kept annoying us Perhaps that will help you, Henrik, to be a bit less – thanks for this thread. My impression when I see a + sign in formulas is that maybe, the user is not so young any longer. According to him, many computer teachers are at the origin of the + sign pandemic. Changing his habit is not going to happen over night, and perhaps it will never change.
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I asked him where he got that from, he answered this is how he was taught, in computer classes more than 40 years ago! He never used Lotus, but he sure was a very early Excel user. He is far from being an expert, and no, Henrik, he is not showing off. I discovered this blog because I was getting into an argument with a friend of mine using the + sign. I don’t know you enough for writing such a broad statement.
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It is like me saying that Henrik is a very judgemental guy, period. There are some conventions, let’s use them.īut I do agree with Jay that judging Excel users by this simple writing is quite judgmental. It is not logical, even in plain english we say that A equals B, not A pluses B. It just makes the formula more difficult to read.
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So it’s faster typing “=” instead of “+”. Because of that, the equal sign should be faster to reach because (on the US keyboard layout) it’s located next to the backspace without pressing Shift. Instead, you rather need letters to start typing formulas or brackets.
#Excel not equal plus
That means, you never need an equal or plus sign on the number pad. In a third cell, you do the calculation with the input values, e.g. Instead, you set up two cell, each of them having one value. You don’t do calculation with values inside a cell, instead you properly label input cells and link to them.
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