Copy date field into text/number field

Jeff Smith

I have a summary at the top of my project plan that has, as a part of it, phase 1, phase 2 and phase 3 go-livedates. I would like those dates to update automatically when the start date of the go-live changes. I've tried a simple =cellname1 but I get a #numberexpected error. Do I need to convert it into something first?

Jeff Smith

I've also tried to pull the date cell into a cell in the same column and I get '=Start139 and not a formula in the cell. I looked and saw that there was a predecessor on it so I took that off and still no luck. 

J. Craig Williams

Jeff,

 

Response to your second comment first - if you are getting a single quote (') when you enter a formula, you are trying to enter a formua in a columnn that is related to Dependencies (Predecessor, Start, End, Duration, etc...). You can find them in the Project Settings. We can't enter formulas in them because they get overwritten.

Try moving the formula to a different column.

 

In a formula the syntax for a cell reference is

 

[COLUMN]ROW

 

where the [] are optional unless you have white space in your column name

 

[This]23 and This23 are both OK for the This column.

[This is the column name]23 is correct for white space

 

Lastly, the #numberexpected is telling you exactly what it says - it is expects a number and you are trying to reference a date.

 

Create a new column (because of that Dependency feature above) and put your formula there, referencing the correct date column and row.

 

Hope that helps.

Craig