Formula errors in EXCEL (#NAME no matter which language).

Question

My excel formulas are not working. I have tried troubleshooting everything possible, even going to the IT people at my university which basically just said good luck to me doing it on my own… I have a suspicion it has something to do with Language. I am English, but I’m studying in Norway. Excel doesn’t seem to recognise English or Norwegian. My region is set to Norway. This is happening with any formula, I don’t know if my excel is in some confused state or what. But I really need to solve this. Ive tried asking a friend in my class about this and he used the exact formula I’m trying and it worked for him, But I’m unable to see any difference in our excel settings. The error I’m always getting is #NAME (#NAVN) so excel is clearly not recognising what I’m asking no matter what language its in. Please help.

Answer 1

Hello @Tom Michael Jack Downes,  

Thank you for reaching out to the Q&A forum! 

After carefully reading your description, I see that this is quite an unusual situation. However, I will do my best to work together with you to identify the root cause and solution.

To assist you better, could you please provide a bit more information? 

1.Could you please send me a screenshot of the exact #NAME / #NAVN error you are seeing, and also a screenshot of the formula you typed? 

2.When you type =SUM, does Excel show the formula suggestion dropdown underneath, or does nothing appear? 

3.Could you go to File => Options => Language and send a screenshot of both Office Display Language and Office Authoring Language? 

4.As you mentioned, could you confirm whether you are using an education (EDU) account provided by your institution? 

5.Do you experience the same issue when using Excel for the Web? 

I hope you understand that although I am limited by the testing environment available on this forum, I will try my best to troubleshoot this with you. I will wait for your reply and then continue researching based on the information you provide. 

Looking forward to hearing from you! 

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Answer 2

It sounds like you're encountering the #NAME? error in Excel, which typically indicates that Excel does not recognize something in your formula. Given your situation, here are a few steps you can take to troubleshoot this issue:

1. Check Language Settings: Since you are using Excel in Norwegian, ensure that your formulas are using the correct Norwegian function names. For example, MAKS is the Norwegian equivalent of MAX. Make sure you are using the correct function names based on the language setting of your Excel.
2. List Separator: The error could also be related to the list separator used in your formulas. In Norwegian, the default list separator is a semicolon (;), while in English it is a comma (,). Since you mentioned trying both, ensure that your Excel settings are correctly configured to use the Norwegian list separator. You can check this in the Excel Options under Advanced settings.
3. Use System Separators: If you have the option "Use system separators" enabled in Excel, it should match your Windows Regional settings. If it’s not enabled, try enabling it to see if that resolves the issue.
4. Reinstall Excel: Since you have already uninstalled and reinstalled Microsoft 365, ensure that during the installation, you selected the correct language and regional settings.
5. Test with Simple Formulas: Try using very simple formulas to see if they work. For example, =1+1 should return 2. If this works, then the issue may be specific to the functions you are trying to use.
6. Check for Add-ins: Sometimes, add-ins can interfere with Excel's functionality. Try disabling any add-ins to see if that resolves the issue.

If you continue to experience problems, consider reaching out to Microsoft Support for further assistance.

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References:

• Formula errors in Excel when list separator isn't set correctly
• Returning Errors