Inconsistent formulas are not flagged as expected in Excel

When you review the formulas in cells in a Microsoft Excel workbook, you may find a cell that is inconsistent with the surrounding formulas, but the cell is not flagged as inconsistent. Both background error checking and the rule for inconsistent formulas in a region are turned on.

This behavior occurs when both of the following conditions are true in the surrounding formulas:

• References to cells include the worksheet name.
  
  -and-
• The worksheet name references are relative references instead of absolute references.

To work around this issue, avoid using worksheet names in references for cells in the same worksheet, and use absolute references to cells in other worksheets.

For example, if you want to reference cell C1 in a worksheet named Sheet1, change the following cell reference to the following: Also, change a relative reference to another sheet, such as to an absolute reference such as the following:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.