Question about viewing functions in Excel 2010?

Either you're accidentally hitting the keys that control this feature in excel, or you're experiencing a software bug.

If you press the CTRL key plus the ~ key (the key to the left of your 1 key), then it toggles the view formulas on or off.

If you are not hitting these keys by accident to turn it on, then it would be a software bug

Now you would see the software bug for 1 of 2 reasons:

1) if you have a stolen pirate copy of Excel 2010 (or office 2010, whatever the case) then you're experiencing the hack. Pirate copies are hacked, and nobody knows where that hack is until they experience an issue (such as what you describe)

2) you have a legal copy that does not have its updates installed. Part of the reason for windows updates is to push down patches for Office (word, excel, powerpoint, access, etc) to help stabilize them. If you have a legal copy, and you are behind, install your updates and get it healthy. This will resolve your issue you see in Excel

interesting iz

Brayden just about covered it.

is it an older .xls file? could be a corrupted file.

maybe your file has cells pre-set to text (even if it already says it is "General"...dont trust it, something isnt right), its tough to guess an anomaly without seeing it.

1st click the comma icon (or $ icon) on your home ribbon....then type in the formula. see if that helps.

selecting cell and clicking the icon before you try editing the cell with the formula will make sure its formatted as a number. you can always format the cell as a specific number format of your choice before you try the formula.

let me know if that helps.

make sure you do not have a space before the =.