Excel shows formula instead of result - what you can do

When you use formulas and functions in Microsoft Excel, normally only the results are shown as output. To check the formula, Excel offers the possibility to show it. However, if you are only shown the formulas instead of the result, this is due to the settings.

Hide and show formulas with keyboard shortcut

If Excel shows you only formulas instead of results, you have to adjust the display options of formulas. You have several ways to do this in Excel. Follow these steps to change the display using a key combination:

1. Start Excel and call up the desired document.
2. If you are working in the Office 365 version of Excel, press the key combination [CTRL] + [Shift] and [']. In older versions of the software, you need to use the combination [Ctrl] + [#].

After you have pressed the key combination once, you should get back as usual only the result and no longer the entire formula displayed.

Customize display options via the ribbon

Alternatively to the keyboard shortcut, you can also use the ribbon to specify whether only the results or the entire formulas should be displayed in your workbook.

1. Open the document and switch to the "Formulas" tab.
2. In the ribbon, click the "Show formula" option in the "Formula monitoring" category to change the display mode. If the button is grayed out, the document will display the formulas instead of the results.