software

Hello. I'm a 1-2-3 user who is trying to become familiar with Excel. I
have a very basic question, and would appreciate any help from
experienced users.

In 1-2-3, if one opens a sheet and enters quot;4*5quot; the cell will show quot;20quot;.
Entering quot;10/2quot; will yield quot;5quot;. But in Excel, even if the cells are
specifically formatted as Number, it seems to be necessary to put quot;=quot; in
front, so that one has to enter quot;=4*5quot; or quot;=10/2quot;. Since the equal sign
is in only one place and not on the extended numeric keyboard, I have to
think that there's another way to do this.

So, the question is whether it is really necessary to add quot;=quot; before an
arithmetic operation, or is there an alternative?

jbn10161 at fastmail dot fm

Joseph, you can use the sign, excel will turn it into an = sign in the
formula

--
Paul B
Always backup your data before trying something new
Please post any response to the newsgroups so others can benefit from it
Feedback on answers is always appreciated!
Using Excel 2002 amp; 2003

quot;Joseph N.quot; gt; wrote in message
...
gt; Hello. I'm a 1-2-3 user who is trying to become familiar with Excel. I
gt; have a very basic question, and would appreciate any help from
gt; experienced users.
gt;
gt; In 1-2-3, if one opens a sheet and enters quot;4*5quot; the cell will show quot;20quot;.
gt; Entering quot;10/2quot; will yield quot;5quot;. But in Excel, even if the cells are
gt; specifically formatted as Number, it seems to be necessary to put quot;=quot; in
gt; front, so that one has to enter quot;=4*5quot; or quot;=10/2quot;. Since the equal sign
gt; is in only one place and not on the extended numeric keyboard, I have to
gt; think that there's another way to do this.
gt;
gt; So, the question is whether it is really necessary to add quot;=quot; before an
gt; arithmetic operation, or is there an alternative?
gt;
gt; jbn10161 at fastmail dot fm
Paul B wrote:
gt; Joseph, you can use the sign, excel will turn it into an = sign in the
gt; formula
gt;
Excellent! Thank you.

Your welcome

--
Paul B
Always backup your data before trying something new
Please post any response to the newsgroups so others can benefit from it
Feedback on answers is always appreciated!
Using Excel 2002 amp; 2003

quot;Joseph N.quot; gt; wrote in message ...
gt; Paul B wrote:
gt; gt; Joseph, you can use the sign, excel will turn it into an = sign in the
gt; gt; formula
gt; gt;
gt; Excellent! Thank you.