ADDRESS in Collabora Office: Build Cell-Address Text with Explicit Reference Modes

• Introduced: the original Collabora release and launch date are not established by the reviewed sources.
• Availability: documented in Collabora Office 26.04 desktop help.
• Platform scope: online and mobile deployment support is not inferred from the desktop documentation.
• Checked: October 14, 2026. Function-specific documentation and independent controls; no native Collabora execution.

=ADDRESS(Row; Column [; Abs [; A1 [; "Sheet"]]])

Row and Column are numeric positions, starting with row 1 and column A=1. The optional Abs argument selects the reference style:

The cited section does not explicitly state the omitted Abs default, so these examples always supply it. A1 equal to 0 requests R1C1 notation; omitted or nonzero A1 requests A1 notation. The optional sheet name is the fifth argument.

Examples follow the help’s English names and semicolon argument separators. Square brackets mark optional arguments, not characters to type.

Enter row numbers 4, 12, 3 and 20 in A2:A5, and column numbers 3, 1, 27 and 28 in B2:B5. In C2 enter and fill through C5:

=ADDRESS(A2;B2;1;1)

Expected strings are $C$4, $A$12, $AA$3 and $AB$20. Columns after Z continue as AA, AB and so on; column 27 is not represented by the literal text “27” in A1 notation.

These strings describe coordinates. If C4 contains 200, ADDRESS(4;3;1;1) still returns the address text $C$4, not 200. Changing the contents of the referenced cell does not change its coordinate.

Evaluate these in separate free cells:

=ADDRESS(4;3;2;1)
=ADDRESS(4;3;3;1)
=ADDRESS(4;3;4;1)

Expected strings are C$4, $C4 and C4. In mode 2 the row is absolute; in mode 3 the column is absolute; in mode 4 both are relative in the generated notation.

The dollar signs are part of the returned text. Filling a formula that produces a fixed string does not itself make that string behave like a directly entered relative cell reference. Distinguish the formula’s own references from the address notation it generates.

Create a worksheet named Data and place -18 in its C4 cell. In B2 of another sheet enter:

=ADDRESS(4;3;1;1;"Data")

Expected text: Data.$C$4. Then use:

=ABS(INDIRECT(B2))

Expected result: 18. ADDRESS constructs the string, INDIRECT resolves it, and ABS operates on the resulting numeric value. The three operations have distinct purposes.

The Collabora help uses a dot between sheet and cell in A1 notation. Do not substitute Excel’s exclamation separator merely because the function names are similar.

For the same Data.C4 reference:

=ADDRESS(4;3;1;0;"Data")

The expected absolute R1C1 string is Data!R4C3. Here the documented sheet separator is an exclamation mark, because the requested notation changed.

If that string is in B3, =INDIRECT(B3;0) resolves it and has expected value -18. Passing the same string to the default A1 resolver is not certified by this example. Explicitly align the producer’s notation with the consumer’s notation.

The official help warns that saving to old ODF 1.0/1.1 removes ADDRESS’s fourth argument. A formula that depends on fourth-argument 0 must not be assumed to survive that conversion unchanged. This is a documented old-format limitation, not a claim about every other interchange format.

Invalid coordinates, unusual sheet-name quoting and exact native error codes remain unverified here. Use ROW and COLUMN to inspect known coordinates, and INDIRECT for the separately documented resolution step.

• Collabora Office 26.04: ADDRESS.
• Editorial testing standards.

Complete function-specific documentation reviewed. Worked outputs are independently modeled reference, text or arithmetic controls, not captured native application results. Unverified entry, conversion and error boundaries retain their stated scope.