When you open a Lotus 1-2-3 worksheet in Excel, apostrophes ('), carets (^), quotation marks ("), or backslashes (\) may appear in the formula bar but not in the cells. These characters are formatting codes, which may be displayed in worksheets that were created in Lotus 1-2-3 or if you are working with keys that are used for navigation in Lotus 1-2-3.

In Lotus 1-2-3, an apostrophe (') indicates left-aligned text, a quotation mark (") indicates right-aligned text, a caret (^) indicates centered text, and a backslash (\) indicates text that is formatted to fill the cell.

You can hide these formatting codes in the formula bar:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Transition tab, clear the Transition navigation keys check box.

Note  You can hide only codes that have been implicitly added, such as formatting codes. You cannot hide codes that have been explicitly added.