This tip allows you to show formulas in Numbers just as you would in Excel.
The secret is to place an apostrophe in front of your formula. For instance, if you type =SUM(10,20), Numbers would normally display 30. If you type ‘=SUM(10,20), Numbers displays =SUM(10,20). That’s correct, it doesn’t display the apostrophe, just your formula.
Students will find this useful, as teachers often want formulas displayed to check for accuracy.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
How do you get the result back again if the apostrophe is no longer displayed?
John,
The apostrophe is for display only. If you want the results from the formula, you need to type it in another cell, or change the format to Automatic.
- Michael
Hello
For my own use, I don’t change the cell’s contents.
I just temporarily set its format to text;-)
Yvan KOENIG
Putting an apostrophe in front of the formula just tells Numbers that that cell’s format is text, so both things you guys said are the same
is there an easier way, maybe a shortcut that will display the formulas of every cell on the page? another thing, when I put the apostrophe in front of my formula, my apostrophe goes away, how do I revert back to my original answer, other than Command+Z ?
Too bad Numbers doesn’t support the “show formulas” feature that Excel has! Life would be so much simpler and I would have ended up here commenting
I agree. Show formulas is a nice feature of Excel (I also miss F2 to edit). However, Numbers is still a fairly new product. It should improve over time.
Hey guys, I think what you can do is convert the cells format into text, that will display all the formulas