EXACT in Collabora Office: Compare Case-Sensitive Labels Without Losing Source Differences

• Introduced: original Collabora release and launch date are not established by the sources reviewed.
• Availability: documented in Collabora Office 26.04 help, scoped to the desktop-help release.
• Platform scope: online and mobile deployments are not inferred from desktop documentation.
• Checked: October 14, 2026. Direct function documentation and independently modeled text controls; no native Collabora test was performed.

=EXACT(text1;text2)

Both arguments supply text strings or references to text cells. Quotation marks identify literal text; semicolons separate arguments in the examples. A TRUE result describes the compared text, not the accuracy or authenticity of an associated record.

Use EXACT when case itself matters. Do not infer the workbook’s ordinary equals-sign collation or lookup matching behavior from this dedicated function. Those settings and functions have their own rules.

Try these independent controls:

=EXACT("Batch-7";"Batch-7")
=EXACT("Batch-7";"batch-7")
=EXACT("Batch-7";"Batch-8")

Expected results: TRUE, FALSE, FALSE. The first pair has the same characters. The second changes the initial letter’s case, while the third changes a digit.

EXACT returns a logical result, not a replacement string. If you want a readable label, wrap the comparison in IF rather than expecting the function to explain which character differs.

=EXACT("North Team";"North Team ")
=EXACT("North Team";"North  Team")

Both expected results are FALSE. The first second-argument string ends in one extra space, and the second contains two internal spaces. These spaces are deliberately included inside the quotes so the inputs can be reproduced.

A length check gives 10 for North Team and 11 for either altered string. Equal length would still not prove equality; Batch-7 and Batch-8 illustrate that limitation.

Prepare A2:B5 as text pairs: AX-01 / AX-01, BX-02 / bx-02, CX-03 / CX-04, and DX-05 / DX-05. In C2 enter:

=IF(EXACT(A2;B2);"Match";"Review")

Filled down, expected labels are Match, Review, Review, Match. In D2 use =IF(EXACT(A2;B2);1;0) and fill down. The indicators 1, 0, 0, 1 sum to 2.

Keep row identifiers aligned. A correct text test applied to the wrong paired rows still answers the wrong audit question. The helper-column approach makes every selected comparison visible instead of hiding pairing inside a larger expression.

If your specific label policy intentionally ignores Latin case, compare:

=EXACT(LOWER("AX-01");LOWER("ax-01"))

Expected result: TRUE. The raw strings were different; LOWER deliberately transforms both before EXACT sees them. Record the raw result separately when case differences themselves need review.

This normalization does not remove spaces, punctuation or different digits. It also does not establish that every identifier is safe to case-fold. Passwords, external keys and formal names can have requirements that a casual display-label policy should not override.

The dedicated reference specifies text and case sensitivity, but does not publish a complete numeric, blank, error or Unicode-normalization matrix. These controls use explicit ordinary text. Visually identical Unicode sequences and rich cell formatting are outside the verified scope here.

If a comparison unexpectedly fails, inspect the exact source strings and lengths before rewriting data. Use the original columns as evidence of what changed; a normalized TRUE should not be reported as proof that the original inputs were identical.

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

The dedicated Collabora function page was reviewed. Expected outputs are independently modeled text controls, not captured results from the application. Extended-character, coercion and deployment-specific behavior retain the limits stated above.