Sometimes I have to mark some cells in a spreadsheet with - to indicate that it was not available or not related, not tested... Sometimes I also use + to denote positiveness or availability.
But after pressing +/- key in an empty cell and press arrow keys or click mouse button to proceed to the next cell like I usually do, it automatically selects the other cell in the formula. So I have to quit editing and type the text again. This is very annoying.
I never start a formula with + or - but always use =. So how can I turn off this behavior? Using macro is also fine.
4 Answers
I'd suggest typing an apostrophe ' before typing the plus or minus. This will escape that functionality and disappear once you move on.
An easier way to disable the automatic formula function is to reformat the sheet (or individual rows, columns, or cells, as suits your need) as Text.
You can use the AutoCorrect feature of Office to replace other arbitrary characters of your choice with + or -.
Note that AutoCorrect list is shared between all Office applications so this approach may have unintended consequences. Choose your characters to replace wisely.
As commented already, even with a macro it's not possible to prevent excel from starting a formula.
If you really want one keystroke and leave the cell then you need to change from + and - characters e.g. to "p" and "n" and you get get a macro which change them to your desired output when you finishing editing of cell content.
Other workaround could be to type 0 and 1 and change them with conditional formatting.
