what is the little black triangle in the upper left corner of a cell
 

After installing Excel and creating a spreadsheet. I find little black
triangles in the upper left corner of some cells.
The equations are working correctly and I can't seem to ask the correct
question in the help module to find out what they mean and to eliminate
them.

Please and thank you!

--


-----------------------------------------------------
Ohio State Motto: At Least We're Not Michigan
-----------------------------------------------------

Bill H. in Chicagoland
webcams at http://24.14.49.4:8080
weather at http://hhweather.webhop.org

Answer: what is the little black triangle in the upper left corner of a cell
 

Hi Bill,

The little black triangle in the upper left corner of a cell is called a "smart tag". It appears when Excel detects a potential error or inconsistency in the data in that cell. For example, if you enter a date in a cell that is formatted as text, Excel will display a smart tag to let you know that the data may not be formatted correctly.

To get rid of the smart tag, you can either

1. click on it and select the appropriate option from the drop-down menu, or
2. you can change the data in the cell to resolve the issue that Excel has detected.

If you find the smart tags to be distracting, you can turn them off by going to the "File" tab, selecting "Options", and then choosing "Proofing" from the left-hand menu. Under "AutoCorrect Options", you can uncheck the box next to "Mark grammar errors as you type" and "Mark formatting inconsistencies as you type".

what is the little black triangle in the upper left corner of a ce
 

Click in one of the cells with such a triangle (they're green on my monitor)
and I think you'll see a yellow diamond shaped icon with an exclamation mark
in it appear next to the cell. Hover over that icon and it will give a
description of what it thinks the 'problem' may be. Often it is 'cell
contains formula - not locked to prevent accidental change' (or words to that
effect). May be some other similar warning.

If you click on the pull down arrow on that icon you'll have some choices
made available, including ignoring the error. You can go to Tools | Options
and choose the [Error Checking] tab to see the list of errors that are
checked for and choose how they are handled. Make decisions about those
choices wisely, not just for your overall convenience.



"FireBrick" wrote:

After installing Excel and creating a spreadsheet. I find little black
triangles in the upper left corner of some cells.
The equations are working correctly and I can't seem to ask the correct
question in the help module to find out what they mean and to eliminate
them.

Please and thank you!

--


-----------------------------------------------------
Ohio State Motto: At Least We're Not Michigan
-----------------------------------------------------

Bill H. in Chicagoland
webcams at http://24.14.49.4:8080
weather at http://hhweather.webhop.org

what is the little black triangle in the upper left corner of a ce
 

Thank you, that fixed it...I unchecked error checking for 'inconsistent
formulas'
and that made them disappear. (Some fields in a column do not have formulas
exactly alike)


"JLatham" <HelpFrom @ Jlathamsite.com.(removethis) wrote in message
...
Click in one of the cells with such a triangle (they're green on my
monitor)
and I think you'll see a yellow diamond shaped icon with an exclamation
mark
in it appear next to the cell. Hover over that icon and it will give a
description of what it thinks the 'problem' may be. Often it is 'cell
contains formula - not locked to prevent accidental change' (or words to
that
effect). May be some other similar warning.

If you click on the pull down arrow on that icon you'll have some choices
made available, including ignoring the error. You can go to Tools |
Options
and choose the [Error Checking] tab to see the list of errors that are
checked for and choose how they are handled. Make decisions about those
choices wisely, not just for your overall convenience.



"FireBrick" wrote:

After installing Excel and creating a spreadsheet. I find little black
triangles in the upper left corner of some cells.
The equations are working correctly and I can't seem to ask the correct
question in the help module to find out what they mean and to eliminate
them.

Please and thank you!

--


-----------------------------------------------------
Ohio State Motto: At Least We're Not Michigan
-----------------------------------------------------

Bill H. in Chicagoland
webcams at http://24.14.49.4:8080
weather at http://hhweather.webhop.org

what is the little black triangle in the upper left corner of
 

Glad that helped - like I said, most of those alerts are just warnings that
you might have done something you really didn't mean to or want to and
perhaps should look at to double-check.

"FireBrick" wrote:

Thank you, that fixed it...I unchecked error checking for 'inconsistent
formulas'
and that made them disappear. (Some fields in a column do not have formulas
exactly alike)


"JLatham" <HelpFrom @ Jlathamsite.com.(removethis) wrote in message
...
Click in one of the cells with such a triangle (they're green on my
monitor)
and I think you'll see a yellow diamond shaped icon with an exclamation
mark
in it appear next to the cell. Hover over that icon and it will give a
description of what it thinks the 'problem' may be. Often it is 'cell
contains formula - not locked to prevent accidental change' (or words to
that
effect). May be some other similar warning.

If you click on the pull down arrow on that icon you'll have some choices
made available, including ignoring the error. You can go to Tools |
Options
and choose the [Error Checking] tab to see the list of errors that are
checked for and choose how they are handled. Make decisions about those
choices wisely, not just for your overall convenience.



"FireBrick" wrote:

After installing Excel and creating a spreadsheet. I find little black
triangles in the upper left corner of some cells.
The equations are working correctly and I can't seem to ask the correct
question in the help module to find out what they mean and to eliminate
them.

Please and thank you!

--


-----------------------------------------------------
Ohio State Motto: At Least We're Not Michigan
-----------------------------------------------------

Bill H. in Chicagoland
webcams at http://24.14.49.4:8080
weather at http://hhweather.webhop.org

what is the little black triangle in the upper left corner of a cell
 

Those are error-checking indicators.

Does not necessarily mean you have errors, just inconsistencies that Excel
flags.

See the options at ToolsOptionsError-checking.

You can turn it off or just let it flag specific "errors".


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP


On Sun, 1 Oct 2006 07:59:12 -0500, "FireBrick" wrote:

After installing Excel and creating a spreadsheet. I find little black
triangles in the upper left corner of some cells.
The equations are working correctly and I can't seem to ask the correct
question in the help module to find out what they mean and to eliminate
them.

Please and thank you!