1. A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for: receiving entry of a formula directly into a cell of a spreadsheet; receiving an indication to include a reference or an argument in the formula being entered into the cell, wherein receiving the indication comprises receiving a plain text entry of the reference or the argument into the formula; and in response to receiving the indication to include the reference or the argument in the formula being entered into the cell, automatically inserting into the formula inside the cell a user interface object to represent the reference or the argument wherein the user interface object is configured to perform one or more features or behaviors not performed by plain text, when the user interface object appears inside the cell, wherein the automatically inserting the user interface object into the formula inside the cell comprises automatically transforming the plain text entry into the user interface object.