do not calculate cells unless data is entered

lucidmumbler · Newbie Joined: 29 Sep 2006 Posts: 2

Hello all!

I've recently moved from Excel and Word to the Openoffice suite and have to say I am mightily impressed and am determined that NO setbacks will send me with my tail between my legs back to the M$ packages... hehe

I had one problem which I'm working on thanks to searching on this forum and will soldier on with it before I ask for help. it's the best way to learn...

however, I have a problem which to be honest has been carried over from Excel. How NOT to perform a calculation in a cell until values have been entered in the relevant cells it acts upon...

so I have 2 cells which make a simple calculations.

cell1 - contains the date that work is received
cell2 - contains the date work was sent back

cell3 - calculates the target date for sending work back (cell1 + 14 days)
cell4 - calculates the differnce in days between cell2 and cell3

how do I stop cell3 aqnd cell4 from performing their calculation (ie. remaining blank) until all other required cells contain valid data?

I guess this sounds naive but I'm new to spreadsheets.

Thanks in advance!

RickRandom · Super User Joined: 27 Jan 2006 Posts: 1082 Location: UK

replace your existing cell with

=IF(ISBLANK(cell with or without data);"";your existing calculation)

DiGro · Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 8:18 am Post subject:

See if you can do something with this in D1

lucidmumbler · Newbie Joined: 29 Sep 2006 Posts: 2

thanks both for the speedy replies - isblank! all this time I've been without this function, now I won't be able to live without it!

Thanks yet again! Effusive thanks I know but I really am grinning like a cheshire cat!!

DiGro · Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 1:06 pm Post subject:

My (and probably our) pleasure.

Have fun with OOo, I know I do Laughing

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DiGro

Windows 7 Home Premium and OOo 3.3 NL (Dutch)