AutoSum display error

Question

Working in Office 2011 on a MacBook Pro, I frequently use tables in Word and AutoSum to add up columns.  Until yesterday the sum has always displayed as a number.  Yesterday it displayed the formula {=SUM(ABOVE)} in place of the numeric total.  I wondered whether this was a glitch that would resolve itself by closing and restarting.  However this made no difference, the problem persists.  What is causing this change in the display?  Has anybody else had this problem?  And, more to the point, how can I restore the settings so that AutoSum displays the total in numeric form?

Thanks

Nick

Answer 1

Hi.  I have a MacBook Pro purchased in 2011 and the keyboard layout is slightly different from the one you indicate, maybe mine is laid out for the UK market or just an older (or newer) layout with 'alt' but no 'option'.  Anyway, I tried fn+alt+F9 and it did toggle Field Codes.  So, many thanks.

Nick

Answer 2

It isn't a 'glitch' :-) Formulas in Word are contained in Fields. What you've inadvertently done is to toggle the display of Field Codes rather than display of the Formula result. The option exist so that Fields can be examined and/or edited if necessary [e.g., you might want to modify the formula to return { =Average (ABOVE) } rather than Sum].

Most likely you used the Option+F9 keystroke by accident - use it again to reverse the display status. Alternatively, you could go to Word> Preferences - View - Show to clear the check on Field Codes.

Answer 3

It depends on how your keyboard is labeled... Conventional Macintosh keyboards do not have an Alt Key - that's a Windows thing :-) Mac keyboards have an Option Key instead. However, with the advent of universal keyboards the key may or may not be marked with both Alt & Option. At any rate, it's sandwiched between the Command key & the Control key:

Also, depending on type of keyboard as well as your Keyboard Settings in System Preferences, you may need to use the fn key in order to use standard 'F' key functions. In your case, it sounds like the keyboard shortcut to toggle display of Field Codes would be: fn+Option[Alt]+F9

Answer 4

Thanks.  I'm not sure which key is the option key (and tried experimenting with fn, ctrl, alt & cmd keys to no avail) so I followed the command line Word> Preferences - View - Showand cleared the check on field codes.   The problem is now resolved.

I did discover that Fn+Cmd+F9 puts in a pair of {} so that was an interesting discovery.

Your comments were really helpful and much appreciated.

Nick

Answer 5

I have now discovered that the 'Toggle Field Codes' command restores the numeric value.

However, if I open a previous file, and if I create a new table in a file where I have already toggled the field codes, the total is still displayed as the formula.

I am still bemused as to how the settings were changed in the first place and now need to find out how to set as default the field code that displays the numeric value.  Any thoughts anyone?

Nick