What are cell display and cell contents in a spreadsheet?

Cell display is what you see when you look at a cell and cell contents are what is in the cell. Sometimes they are the same, like when you type a number into a cell. Sometimes they are different, like when you type in a formula. When you've entered the formula the cell will normally show some value that the formula creates, like a total. So you might see a number, which is the cell display, but the cell still contains a formula, which is the cell content. If you put the cursor onto a cell and look at the formula bar, it will show you what is in the cell.

Formatting a cell can also change the cell display, but not the contents. If you put a number into a cell and format it to currency, you will see the currency value, with a currency symbol and probably two decimal places, but the cell still just contains the number you originally entered.