Help with a Numbers spreadsheet please

[Ayeteedee]

I am trying to write text into a cell on a spreadsheet in Numbers which I have been using for years without a problem. It is only happening in one column. When I try to type the the characters into a cell they are going into a small box in the bottom left hand corner of the spreadsheet (outside of the cells) and the box is sometimes called Text, other times it is called Formatted. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[robbinia]

I am trying to write text into a cell on a spreadsheet in Numbers which I have been using for years without a problem. It is only happening in one column. When I try to type the the characters into a cell they are going into a small box in the bottom left hand corner of the spreadsheet (outside of the cells) and the box is sometimes called Text, other times it is called Formatted. Any help would be appreciated.

When I need to force a cell to treat my input as text and not try to convert to a number or formula, for example “+123”, I type an apostrophe first, so would type ‘+123. You could try this & see if it works. Otherwise try selecting the cells/column and in the inspector go to cells tab and change format to text.

 

[Ayeteedee]

When I need to force a cell to treat my input as text and not try to convert to a number or formula, for example “+123”, I type an apostrophe first, so would type ‘+123. You could try this & see if it works. Otherwise try selecting the cells/column and in the inspector go to cells tab and change format to text.

Thanks robbinia unfortunately that isn’t working. The format is set to text. When I click into the cell, the cursor is in the middle of it. I just can’t understand where the small box called Text outside of the cells is coming from and way the letters and numbers that I am typing are only going into that.

 

[BrianBaughn]

A screenshot of the affected area might help get a response if no one knows right away.

 

[whitestar27]

Thanks robbinia unfortunately that isn’t working. The format is set to text. When I click into the cell, the cursor is in the middle of it. I just can’t understand where the small box called Text outside of the cells is coming from and way the letters and numbers that I am typing are only going into that.

If you mean at the very bottom of the screen it shows up with Text written next to it and also whatever you type? That is normal and will always show up when you type anything, it's just the standard input box. I think you might have your text colour set so you can't see it in the cell and you have only just noticed the input box at the bottom of the screen now because your cell is not showing like normal. Try changing the text or fill colour to something else and see if you can see it.