Has anyone seen this behavior? It’s only happening on a spreadsheet that was sent to me: I open a new tab, enter the numbers 100 to 500 in column A and 1 to 5 in column B. I sum column A and the answer is correct, then I copy and past to column B and the answer is the same as column A, the sum function is not summing column B, but the formula is correct. I can’t even figure what setting would cause that, or why anyone would want that to happen! See attached vid.
Update: I cannot upload an mp4. I’ll try converting it to something acceptable.
Upload a sample spreadsheet that shows the issue rather than an image or video.
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Did you copy the cell? In which case the number will adapt to its new position.
Or did you copy the contents of the cell? In which case the text will remain the same, e.g. =SUM(A2:A402) can be pasted anywhere in the spreadsheet (except between A1 and A403 where it will give an error) and it will always give the same result
Choose menu Data - Calculate - Autocalculate. Or press F9 each time a new calculation is needed.
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That is it! Thank you LeroyG. Now the question I have to answer is why the guy who sent his finances would have turned that off, I’m sure that it’s on by default. Keeping me on my toes!
If you work with very large spreadsheets, with iterative formulas, or a lot of matrix type calculations because of the long computation times, you might choose to turn off calculation until you had made all the changes you planned. You then press Calculate and go and have a cup of tea.
You can set to not calculate to be the default for all your spreadsheets.
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Thank you robleyd & EarnestAI. Here’s a sample spreadsheet, I’m sure that there must be a setting to switch between copying the cell contents rather than formulas. Copy the cell A6, which is the sum formula, to B6 and you’ll get the contents of A6 although the formula did change as expected. I’ve never seen this behavior before and I can’t imagine why anyone would want it to do that!
Test.ods (11.9 KB)
Hit F9 and the result will be calculated. Automatic calculation is turned off for this document. menu:Data>Calculate>Auto
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