Calc: dynamic update format of cells that share values?

[JimM]

MAC OS Catalina 10.15.2
LO: Version: 6.3.3.2
Build ID: a64200df03143b798afd1ec74a12ab50359878ed
CPU threads: 4; OS: Mac OS X 10.15.2; UI render: default; VCL: osx;
Locale: en-US (en_US.UTF-8); UI-Language: en-US
Calc: threaded

Hello. When target cell content in a Calc spreadsheet is defined to be equivalent to an original cell’s content, the content of the original cell appears in the target cell (e.g., content of cell a2 is the same as content of cell a1). The copy / paste method copies original cell content AND format into the target cell. But the target cell does not dynamically update if the content of the original cell is edited. If the method used to create target cells that have the same content as the original is simple equivalence (cell a2 = cell a1), target cell content updates when original cell content is edited. BUT format is not copied when the initial equivalence is set. What is desirable is a method that 1. sets content equivalence AND 2. sets format equivalence so that BOTH content and format update in the target cell when the original is edited. Does LO Calc have a command sequence that allows this? (The attached extract from a project file may be more clear than the wordy explanation.) Thanks

[anon73440385]

BUT format is not copied when the initial equivalence is set.

Nothing is ever copied by use of a formula. Referenced content (or calculations from that) are presented (shown) , but no content is changed. The content keeps to be a formula.

[JimM]

My question may be unclear. Or, I may not understand Opaque. To the statement that “Nothing is ever copied by use of a formula”, I ask: If I enter the formula “= a1” into cell a2, does the formula not cause the content of cell a1 to display in cell a2? Is the relevant distinction between a copy and a display? I thank Opaque for leading me to this thought. However, the original question reemerges as: If the display in a2 of the content of a1 occurs, why is it that not all the content of a1 appears in a2? E.g., if a1 has the word Italic (displayed using italic), why does it not appear as Italic in a2? Are formats not intrinsic cell properties but detachable attributes? If this is correct, then Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V copies both content and attribute, but does not create a reference. Lacking a reference, a copied cell cannot update. Am I correct about distinctions among content, display, format, property, and attribute? Thank you.

[Lupp]

The one standardized way to get an updating result in a cell is the formula contained in that cell and returning that result (mostly under the setting ‘AutoCalc’). Formulas only can return either a text (String) or a number as one item each. The overall format used to show the result is a cell attribute. Not even by manual interaction you can set different character formatting for parts of a string returned by a formula.
Only texts being constant content (not returned by a formula) can be differently formatted in portions.

Therefore: If you very urgently need to automatically update cells containing copies of others, you will have to be very creative and studious with developing user code for the task.