Concepts

Why does the spreadsheet keep messing up my formulas when I click on a new cell?

Excel has some built-in features that make entering formulas easier. If you don't understand how these features work you will get apparently strange behavior.

If you click on another cell while entering a formula there are two possible outcomes:

Option 1. If the insertion point is at the end of the complete formula, , the formula is submitted to Excel for evaluation and the highlighted cell changes to the new cell just selected. If Excel detects an error on the formula you will get an error message.

Option 2. If the insert point is at the end of an incomplete formula, , or is in the middle of a formula, , clicking on another cell will insert a cell reference into the current formula. If you are not expecting this behavior it will appear that Excel is messing up your formula. This feature is useful for inserting into a formula a reference to a cell or a range of cells. Refer to the lesson on specifying cell references with the cursor to see an example of how this feature is used.