Changes from Excel 2000 to Excel 2002

[Carol]

I'm sure there's a simple answer, but I can't find it.
In Excel 2000, the equal sign appears next to the window
that displays cell contents, so if you want to add
numbers within a cell, you can click the equal sign and
and type the numbers, type the operation, or click on
cells to include.
In Excel 2002, I cannot locate any method of doing this
except to click into a cell and type the equal sign, and
then the numbers, operations or cells.
Minor inconvenience, but it slows things down.

 

[Dave Peterson]

You can drag the equal sign icon to your favorite toolbar (keep it close to the
formula bar).

tools|Customize|commands tab|Insert category
look for that equal sign icon and drag it.

 

[Carol]

I've been trying to do that for the last 1/2 hour, but
any button I drag from the commands list in customize
toolbars is not appearing on my toolbar!
Could there be something wrong with my version of Excel
itself?

 

[Carol]

OK, I've solved that, wasn't dragging directly onto a
toolbar.
Its late, I must be tired
Thanks for the tip.

 

[Dave Peterson]

Ouch, I hate those.

Glad you got it working!

OK, I've solved that, wasn't dragging directly onto a
toolbar.
Its late, I must be tired
Thanks for the tip.

 

[Carol]

Sorry Dave, but it doesn't work quite right. In 2000, if
there was data in the cell, and you click the = sign on
the formula bar, the data is preserved and the cursor
moves to the end of the cell so you can add more data.
By using the button I added in 2002, the data is wiped
out of the cell.
It doesn't seem right that this simple tool would have
been eliminated in newer versions.
Any other ideas?
Carol

 

[Debra Dalgleish]

The Equal Sign button is gone, and there's no way to replace it in
Excel 2002. Dave's suggestion for using the Equal button is about the
only workaround that anyone has found.

This posting, by a Microsoft employee, offers the same advice:


http://groups.google.com/groups?&selm=cL2m5yMnCHA.1972@cpmsftngxa06

 

[Carol]

Thanks Debra, I'm glad it's not just me. And now I know
that I'm stuck. I guess I'm what you would call a basic
Excel user, and the old way simplified quick entries
which the new version complicates. The only constant is
change.
I also submitted this as a suggestion somewhere along the
way while I was searching the Microsoft Excel pages
before I stumbled onto the newsgroups.
Carol

 

[Dave Peterson]

Maybe you could use a macro:

Option Explicit
Sub addEquals()
SendKeys "{F2}{Home}={End}"
End Sub

(But test this. I don't think that I ever used that equal sign and I'm using
xl2002, now. So I'm not sure it does everything that clicking on the = icon
did.)