Viewing Calc on the Fly Formulas

You can view the member formulas by clicking a data cell containing formulas.

The formula appears in a tooltip on hover. You can also view it in Excel’s formula bar at the top of the sheet by clicking a data cell.

Viewing Formulas in Ad Hoc Grids

In ad hoc grids, you need to first insert the member formulas and then view them in the grid.

Before inserting the member formulas, the grid cells do not show any formulas in Excel’s formula bar or in the tooltip.

Figure 22-5 Ad hoc grid before inserting member formulas


Shows an ad hoc grid with Jan, Feb, Mar, and Q1 columns. For the Jan column, the values are filled for Over Time Hours, Payroll Tax %, Salary, Overtime, and Bonus cells. The Total Salary column for all three months and Q1 shows #Missing as no calculations are done yet.

After you insert the member formula, it appears in the tooltip of cells with formulas, along with the member names and mathematical operators.

Figure 22-6 Ad hoc grid updated after inserting member formulas


After inserting member formulas, the calculated value is displayed in the Total Salary cell for the Jan column. The cell also shows a tooltip with the member formula as Total Salary = Salary + Overtime + Bonus. All cells containing member formulas appear with green triangle indicators.

Viewing Formulas in Forms 2.0

In Forms 2.0, you can directly view the formulas after opening a form and hovering on a formula cell.

Figure 22-7 Formula tooltip in Forms 2.0

Clicking the Q1 cell in a Forms 2.0 form shows the member formula in tooltip as a sum of Jan, Feb, and Mar cell values.

Formula Details

The tooltip displays the formula in two formats:

  • Member formula format: Displays the member names and mathematical operators involved in the formula. For example,
    member (Total Salary): Salary + Overtime + Bonus
  • Excel formula format: Displays the function name and Excel cell names involved in the formula. For example,
    =EssSum(C4, C5, C6)

In ad hoc grids, the cells containing member formulas are highlighted with a green triangle indicator, but in Forms 2.0, there is no such indicator. In Excel’s formula bar, you can click the formula and the cells involved in the formula are highlighted in the grid for easy identification.

Figure 22-8 Viewing cells involved in a formula


With focus on the Total Salary cell, the cells of Salary, Overtime, and Bonus are highlighted in the grid indicating that these three cells are involved in calculation of total salary.