Entering strings

Text in number cells can be entered as a string. Strings must be enclosed between double quotes. They can contain spaces, but not control characters.

"As long as a piece of string"

If you need to include a double quote mark within a string, you must enter it twice:

"She said ""Hello!"""

It is much easier to enter text strings as plain text in a text cell. When you need to use the text in a formula, you can enter its cell reference; this automatically creates a string out of the contents of the cell.

To enter text in a cell, place the caret within the cell and type the text. If the text was not entered via the formula line, it will be interpreted as text automatically.