Formulae in Tables

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Johann Swart - 21 Sep 2004 14:47 GMT

Whenever I insert a formula in a table I get a "!Invalid
Character Setting" error message.
For example, I have a 4-row, 4-column table. In the bottom
right hand cell (D4) I insert "=SUM(ABOVE)" and expect to
see the sum of the 3 cells above (D1, D2, D3), but it does
not happen. What am I missing here?

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Doug Robbins - 22 Sep 2004 01:43 GMT

What do you see when you toggle on the field codes by pressing Alt+F9?

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Please respond to the Newsgroup for the benefit of others who may be
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Hope this helps,
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

> Whenever I insert a formula in a table I get a "!Invalid
> Character Setting" error message.
> For example, I have a 4-row, 4-column table. In the bottom
> right hand cell (D4) I insert "=SUM(ABOVE)" and expect to
> see the sum of the 3 cells above (D1, D2, D3), but it does
> not happen. What am I missing here?

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Johann Swart - 22 Sep 2004 06:47 GMT

{ =SUM(ABOVE) }

>-----Original Message-----
>What do you see when you toggle on the field codes by pressing Alt+F9?
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
>.

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Doug Robbins - 22 Sep 2004 10:45 GMT

OK, That's what I would expect. Have you tried selecting the cell and use
F9 to update the field in it?

If you want to email me a copy of the document I will take a look at it.

Signature

>{ =SUM(ABOVE) }
>>-----Original Message-----
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>>
>>.

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Johann Swart - 22 Sep 2004 14:12 GMT

Tried that, without avail. Could it possibly have
something to do with my Regional Settings having the
decimal as a comma (national standard). If yes, how do I
overcome this?

>-----Original Message-----
>OK, That's what I would expect. Have you tried selecting the cell and use
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>
>.

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Doug Robbins - 23 Sep 2004 00:47 GMT

What are the entries in the column above the formula?

Signature

> Tried that, without avail. Could it possibly have
> something to do with my Regional Settings having the
[quoted text clipped - 48 lines]
>>
>>.

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Johann Swart - 27 Sep 2004 06:41 GMT

The table I created, was just a mock-up to demonstrate to
a colleague how to use formulae in tables (talk about egg
in the face!). Anyway, back to your question, the 3 cells
above the formula have 1, 2, and 3 in them.

>-----Original Message-----
>What are the entries in the column above the formula?
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>
>.

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Johann Swart - 28 Sep 2004 07:41 GMT

Hi Doug,
On revisiting my Regional Options, I realised I had both
the decimal symbol and the list separator as commas. I
have now changed the list separator to a semicolon, and at
least I now get some simple results in my tables.
But this leads me to another question: How sofisticated
can formulae in Word be? Is it restricted to the basic
functions listed in the 'Formula' dialog box, or can one
build complex formulae as in Excel?
Also, if a Word document contains several tables
interspersed with text, can I have one table referring to
another table in the same document?
Regards
Johann

>-----Original Message-----
>The table I created, was just a mock-up to demonstrate to
[quoted text clipped - 75 lines]
>>
>.

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macropod - 02 Oct 2004 03:18 GMT

Hi Johann,

To see what you can do with formulae in Word, check out the document at:
http://www.wopr.com/cgi-bin/w3t/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=wrd&Number=365442
(url all one line)

Cheers

> Hi Doug,
> On revisiting my Regional Options, I realised I had both
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> >>
> >.

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