The Formula Reference Slippage Problem in MS Excel for Mac
When working with a large, multi-sheet Excel workbook on MacBook Pro (M1), I started encountering a strange issue when inserting rows on one of the worksheets. What happens is that some formulas “slip” or “miss” their intended references after some row insertion/deletion (not those rows having any relation to the affected formulas or references).
In my case the formulas mistakenly referenced a different row, often one row above the original target row. It is as if Excel is confused by (multiple) row deletions or insertions.
Even worse – it was NOT possible to “undo” the action. I made a couple of tests with insert row actions. I could detect the exact moment it happens (in my case, the circular reference occurred because of the reference slip), but no “undo” could fix it. (I had to start from the last saved version, which I paranoiacally make every 15 min or so … luckily).
This makes the whole thing unusable. I took the same excel file and continued working on Windows – it doesn’t happen there.
Anyone had anything similar ever happen with Excel (on Mac)?
When working with a large, multi-sheet Excel workbook on MacBook Pro (M1), I started encountering a strange issue when inserting rows on one of the worksheets. What happens is that some formulas “slip” or “miss” their intended references after some row insertion/deletion (not those rows having any relation to the affected formulas or references). In my case the formulas mistakenly referenced a different row, often one row above the original target row. It is as if Excel is confused by (multiple) row deletions or insertions. Even worse – it was NOT possible to “undo” the action. I made a couple of tests with insert row actions. I could detect the exact moment it happens (in my case, the circular reference occurred because of the reference slip), but no “undo” could fix it. (I had to start from the last saved version, which I paranoiacally make every 15 min or so … luckily). This makes the whole thing unusable. I took the same excel file and continued working on Windows – it doesn’t happen there. Anyone had anything similar ever happen with Excel (on Mac)? Read More
