Fraction calculating in Calc

This seems to be an ongoing issue and none of the fixes listed seem to be working. I have an .ODS spreadsheet that I am trying to enter 1/8 into the cell with the expected result of .125 returned. I have formatted the cell as category number and format general, -1234.57, and -1,234.57. I keep getting 42743 as the result. If I enter 3/4, I get the fraction 3/4. The only time I get the actual calculation is when I put an = in front of the fraction or a zero, space, and then fraction. Is there any way around this or does the equal sign always have to be entered?

Please try trick from this answer

Thanks, that got rid of the date conversion issue. I would have never thought to look there.

The equals sign always has to be entered, or else 0 and a space. Otherwise, the data is considered either a date literal or a string. Entering Fractions - LibreOffice Help.

Use the + instead the =, usually it’s easily accessible on the keyboard.