Deedee,

I can understand you want to see your spreadsheet formulas rendered in a way that represents what they would do in the spreadsheet. This should however not mean such formulas are rendered in a way that has no longer a relation with how in mathematics formulas are rendered.

E.g. the reference system that is often used in spreadsheets reverses the order of row and column that is used in references to matrix elements. For that reason I also referred to the reference system that still can be used in many (if not all) major spreadsheets. The latter reference system has a much more close relation to matrix references.

I hope you will agree that we can look at a spreadsheet/workbook sheet as a large matrix. This means that when we recognize the spreadsheet as such we also can decide to project the spreadsheet onto an equivalent matrix and still be talking about the same subject. As such one can recognize that a reference like or is fully equivalent to a reference like with as the sheet in our spreadsheet.

So if you say you want a nice looking representation of an Excel formula in a spreadsheet and you want to reflect the formula/calculation in a cell, is an equation like that different from ? With the latter formula you know it is a proper mathematical rendering of the same formula. While the former is just text in LaTeX as a markup language.

The real difference is visible when a formula like (I use one of the example from this CodeCogs section here):

=SUM(A1+B2)/SIN(x) is rendered as In this rendering of the formula is not mathematically without a meaning but also to say at least ambiguous. And the entire formula is a pidgin rendering that neither is a spreadsheet formula nor a mathematical expression, and as such lowers the understanding of what the creator tries to express, instead of raising it. And - strictly personal - I think of this as a plain ugly rendering; I think CodeCogs consciously or unconsciously recognized this and for this reason rendered the part that was different in a different color from the rest...

We may disagree here, but I think that when one tries to render a spreadsheet formula as a mathematical expression one should make an effort to go all the way, or just not try. I feel there is much to be gained if the full effort is made, i.e. that this excellent add-in (pun intended) could stand out as an application instead of going half way and stop as something that was promising but simply wasn't pushed hard enough.