Linked Cells not returning values

[jbcmem]

I have been setting up dozens of workbooks with linked sheets. All of a sudden the cells I'm trying to link that contain text are not showing the text but instead the path information (ex: ='sheet2'D2).
I've unprotected my worksheets, I've copied and pasted formats only and the cells I'm changing are not cooperating. Can anyone help me?

 

[brian.wethington]

I have been setting up dozens of workbooks with linked sheets. All of a sudden the cells I'm trying to link that contain text are not showing the text but instead the path information (ex: ='sheet2'D2).
I've unprotected my worksheets, I've copied and pasted formats only and the cells I'm changing are not cooperating. Can anyone help me?

Do you mean that it is showing 'Sheet2'!D2

?

 

[jbcmem]

Yes. It shows

='sheet2'!D2

in cell C25 on sheet 1 when I want it to show

Last Name

which is the text I have on sheet 2 in cell D2.
I can't seem to get the cell to show the actual text when I add another worksheet and link the next cell. I've tried typing in the link, copying the link and changing just the sheet number and typing the entire link from scratch. Any ideas?

 

[brian.wethington]

Do you have any other formulas on that sheet that are doing the same thing? You may try pressing Ctrl + tilde

tilde = key to the left of the 1 above tab.

 

[jbcmem]

I tried that. It shows all the formulas including the ones I'm seeing anyway. Then when I press it again, things go back to the way they were before. Still showing the formulas in the text cells.
The only different thing I can see about these cells is that they are using $D$2 (I just noticed that it's not D2). But when I change it in cells that are working properly, those start misbehaving too.
I seem to have fixed it at one time because I have the original worksheet working fine. But I'm trying to add 4 worksheets and the links to those onto the first sheet and having trouble again.

 

[brian.wethington]

The only difference between D2 and $D$2 is that the first is a relative reference and the last is an absolute reference, which only really affects anything if you copy and paste or something of that nature.

If you go into the formatting of the affected cell what is it formatted as text?

 

[jbcmem]

The formatting for all associated cells is text. However, the misbehaving cells are showing the misbehaving text as and example as well.

 

[brian.wethington]

The formatting for all associated cells is text. However, the misbehaving cells are showing the misbehaving text as and example as well.

I am not sure I was very clear about what cell I am call the affected cell. The cell that contains the formula is the cell I am concerned about. If that cell is formatted as text then it will not perform the formula instead it will just show the formula. If this is currently what is occuring you can change the formatting of the affected cells to general and then select the affected cells and press Ctrl + h and put an equal sign in both boxes and replace all.

 

[jbcmem]

I'm not sure how I did it yesterday, but I got it to work anyway. Out of curiosity, I just tried your suggestion and it works. THANKS! I'll make a note so I can use this next time...it was an actual solution and much faster!