Formula freezing while being inserted

[jkharms]

I select a cell. I type in a formula in the formula bar. I hit enter. In the cell, rather than a result, I see the text I typed in the formula bar. When I try to delete what's in the cell, the text does not disappear. However, the formula bar shows there is nothing in the cell after I have hit "delete". I've tried clearing the text from the cell by selecting "All" from the drop down Clear option, but it doesn't disappear.
If I close the sheet without saving, the text in the cell disappears.

I'm using Excel 16.13.1 for Mac

Any idea what's going on with this program?

 

[jim may]

Are you preceeding your formula entry with the "=" character (without the quotes)? Like..
=SUM(A1:A2)

 

[jkharms]

Are you preceeding your formula entry with the "=" character (without the quotes)? Like..
=SUM(A1:A2)

Yes, certainly. I'm used to creating formulas, so am familiar with the use of = to precede the text. Even the text that shows in the cell has the = sign. I just can't delete the text in the cell. It seems very strange that the text would show in the cell when that same text doesn't show in the formula bar after I delete my entry.

This is a relatively new phenomenon, so I feel I must have accidentally activated some function within Excel that I can't "unblock".

 

[Fluff]

Do you have any macros?

 

[RoryA]

It sounds like either you have Excel set to display all formulas, or the cell is formatted as Text.

 

[jkharms]

No. There are none.

 

[jkharms]

I worked on this cell again. I developed a simple summing formula and it worked. I expanded it somewhat and it still worked. Then I add some additional calculations, and it again did not calculate and could not be removed (although, again, the formula did not appear in the formula bar when I attempted to delete the cell. Interestingly, only a portion of the formula's text showed in the cell and when the cursor was placed in the cell, it could not be moved.

 

[jkharms]

No. There are none.

Here is some more specific information.

Attempting to calculate a function in cell O8, I typed into the formula bar =(M19+M34+M41)+(O45*100). In cell O8 this appeared:+M41)+ ...a clear protein of the formula, and no calculation occurred.

However, if I copied cell O8 into cell P8, (and changed all the Ns to Ms and the P45 to O45), the formula calculated properly, and I could delete it normally.

If I used the $ device to lock all the cell locations, and copied cell O8 into cell O9, the calculation worked properly and the cell could be emptied by hitting delete.

The problem seems to be in cell O8, but the cell is not designated as "text", and is designated as "number".