Tips: How to Show Formulas in Apple iWork Numbers

by Michael on September 4, 2007

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 }

JohnA September 4, 2007 at 8:18 pm

How do you get the result back again if the apostrophe is no longer displayed?

Michael September 4, 2007 at 8:24 pm

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

KOENIG Yvan September 11, 2007 at 11:40 am

Hello

For my own use, I don’t change the cell’s contents.
I just temporarily set its format to text;-)

Yvan KOENIG

benji October 14, 2008 at 6:43 pm

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

Nick October 7, 2010 at 12:17 am

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 ?

Will November 12, 2010 at 6:51 pm

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 ;-)

Michael December 1, 2010 at 8:00 pm

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.

Agatha April 30, 2011 at 8:30 pm

Hey guys, I think what you can do is convert the cells format into text, that will display all the formulas :)

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