When LibreOffice Calc displays =A1+B1 instead of a number, first open View > Show Formulas and make sure that setting is off. If only a few cells show formulas as text, change their format from Text to Number and re-enter the formula. These two checks solve the most common display-versus-entry problems without changing the rest of your spreadsheet.
Formula display and formula calculation are different problems. Back up important workbooks before changing an imported range. The menu names below follow the English-language LibreOffice 26.2 online Help; labels may differ in other versions or user-interface layouts.
If many cells suddenly contain visible expressions such as =SUM(A1:A5), the spreadsheet may be in a formula-display mode. Calc can still store and calculate the formula while deliberately displaying its expression in the cell.
You can also inspect Tools > Options > LibreOffice Calc > View on Windows or Linux and leave Formulas unchecked in the Display settings. The official help describes both the Show Formulas command and the Calc View option.
The input line normally shows the formula even when its cell displays a calculated result.
If one column or a handful of pasted cells show literal formulas while nearby cells calculate normally, inspect the cell format. Calc treats newly entered content as text when the destination cell has the Text category. This can happen with templates or imported data.
=A2+B2.Changing the format alone may not convert existing text. Re-enter the expression so Calc can parse it as a formula.
For a large imported range, test one cell before modifying the full column. Do not apply number conversion indiscriminately to account numbers, postal codes, or other identifiers whose leading zeros must remain intact. See the official Formatting Numbers as Text documentation for the difference between existing entries and newly entered text-formatted values.
Calc lets you force an entry to remain text by starting it with an apostrophe. For example, '=A2+B2 is intended as literal content; =A2+B2 is a formula. The apostrophe may not be obvious in the cell, so examine the input line or enter edit mode before deciding the formula is malformed.
=.For instance, with 10 in A2 and 20 in B2, entering =A2+B2 into C2 should display 30. A typed apostrophe is different from a quotation mark inside a formula, such as ="Ready", which legitimately produces a text result. The apostrophe's role as a text-entry marker is documented in LibreOffice Help.
If a cell shows an old numeric result after its inputs change, the formula may be valid but AutoCalculate may be disabled.
AutoCalculate recalculates formulas after cells change, while Recalculate Hard forces a broader recalculation. Neither command turns a literal text string into a formula. If you still see =A2+B2 directly in one affected cell after these commands, go back to its number format and entry. The AutoCalculate help and Recalculate Hard reference explain the separate behaviors.
When the issue begins after opening a CSV file or splitting pasted text into columns, the import settings may have instructed Calc to preserve formula-like strings. CSV is a text-based format, so its fields can be interpreted in different ways during import.
= to become active formulas, enable Evaluate formulas.Only enable formula evaluation for files you trust. An unfamiliar CSV may contain expressions that should remain literal data. If you need to preserve imported formula strings safely, leave that option disabled. The official Text Import documentation explicitly distinguishes formula evaluation from importing expressions as text.
Create a small test in a blank area of your workbook: type 10 into A2, 20 into B2, and =A2+B2 into C2, or use equivalent empty cells. The answer should be 30 in C2, while selecting C2 should reveal =A2+B2 in the input line. Change B2 to 25; with AutoCalculate on, C2 should change to 35.
If the new test works but an imported cell does not, the issue is local to the original cell's contents or format. If the entire sheet still shows expressions, recheck Show Formulas. Save the corrected document in ODS format if you need to retain working formulas and editable spreadsheet behavior, then reopen it and repeat the test.
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