If = formula does not work in excel what to do?

The = formula does not work in excel
Select all = containing cells
Then Go to "Data" (6 tabs away from File tab on horizontal axis)
Go to "Text to Column"
Go to "Delimited"
Click "Next"
Again Click "Next"
Click "Finish"
Then = formula will give value.
However same might not work for very backward & very very old version of Excel.
Is applicable for newer versions of excel perhaps from Excel 5.0 onwards.