#1

When I enter “-” or “+” into a cell and press cursor right to move to the next cell LibreOffice thinks that I am starting to write a formula and automatically highlights the cell I moved into. I formatted all cells as text but it doesn’t change this behavior. Is there a toggle that prevents this, similar to Auto correction?

#2

I formatted all cells as text but it doesn’t change this behavior

IMO, given that text formatting is designed to disable interpretation of the entered text as formula, it should also prevent formula helpers when entering the text. And current state is therefore is a bug. Please file it.

#3

Righly there should be one indicator telling that the user intends to enter a formula, and as everything as far as possible at all, this should be done explicitly. (Suggestion: Ctrl+F)
Alas! Tradition has introduced a few implicit indicators. We should change tradition insofar, and, as a first step, only keep the first character “=” as an implicit indicator.of starting a formula. To allow “+” and “-” in this role is very bad and superfluous - at least for users not completely lost to MS think.

#4

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=132026

#5

To set the ‘Numbers’ format code @ (‘Text’) for the afflicted range in advance is a very inefficient workaround and has side-effects probably getting relevant later, and then causing errors of the kind where the exploration of the cause is difficult.

For me it works to use Alt+Enter when finishing the editing. The goRight may then be the next step.

Please note that Alt+Enter makes the cell selected in the full sense.
The formula recognition based on the leading = is not suppressed.

#6

I can just press Enter, no need for Alt. But the cursor then goes to the cell below rather than the one on the right. So, in order to enter dash and move to the next cell I would need to do: dash(-), Enter, Up, Right. Two keystrokes too much for my taste. I am just entering some simple notes and don’t intend to use formulas in this spreadsheet at all, so would rather welcome any solution that doesn’t involve workarounds.