Issue 124615

Summary: Validity Input Help will have vanished after scroll out of sight and back
Product: Calc Reporter: Rainer Bielefeld <rainerbielefeld_ooo_qa>
Component: viewingAssignee: AOO issues mailing list <issues>
Status: UNCONFIRMED --- QA Contact:
Severity: Trivial    
Priority: P5 (lowest) CC: elish, rainerbielefeld_ooo_qa
Version: 3.3.0 or older (OOo)Keywords: needhelp
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Windows 7   
Issue Type: DEFECT Latest Confirmation in: ---
Developer Difficulty: ---
Attachments:
Description Flags
Sample Document none

Description Rainer Bielefeld 2014-04-06 09:00:00 UTC
This one is a spin off from "Issue 43818 - Validity/Input Help Does NOT Work With Merged Cells "

Steps how to reproduce Reproducible with server installation of "AOO 4.1.0-dev – English UI / German locale - [AOO410m14(Build:9760)  -  Rev. 1583418_2014-04-02]" on German WIN7 Home Premium (64bit)", own separate user profile:

0. Open Attachment 83108 [details] for Issue 123290
1. Double click C8
   > Validity input help appears
2. With vertical scroll slider scroll down until help has vanished from visible
   area of sheet
3. scroll up again until end
   > C8 visible again
   Bug: Validity input help has disappeared.

Very old problem, already in 1.1.5
Comment 1 Edwin Sharp 2014-04-06 09:43:48 UTC
A tool tip is not supposed to be sticky.
Behavior is consistent with comment appearance.
Comment 2 Rainer Bielefeld 2014-04-06 09:47:57 UTC
(In reply to Edwin Sharp from comment #1)
> A tool tip is not supposed to be sticky.
> Behavior is consistent with comment appearance.

You are wrong.
Comment 3 Edwin Sharp 2014-04-06 10:15:17 UTC
Input help is an aid for the user for filling the specific validity cell.
User scrolled from cell -> user doesn't want to fill the cell, why still display input help?
If comments are supposed to be always on - why option "show comment" ?
Comment 4 Rainer Bielefeld 2014-04-20 05:30:31 UTC
Created attachment 83233 [details]
Sample Document

Reasoning in Comment 1 is wrong. A Tooltip is a mousover effect what disappears "by definition" if the cell with comment becomes moved out of visible area. But Validity input help visibility is related to cell cursor position.

Assumption of users' intentions and needs in Comment 3 seems a stretch to me. If user scrolls to cell AF100, does that mean that he is not interested in contents of A1, so that there is no need to show contents of A1 again when he has scrolled back?

Attachment shows a real life situation where it is unexpected that Validity help disappears
Comment 5 Rainer Bielefeld 2014-04-20 05:36:44 UTC
I am not happy with the current Validity Help, my opinion is that it is too persisting and covers cells in the neighborhood even if it no Help is required. So it might be inexpedient to start a fix here before we have a complete overview how an optimal Validity help should work. I have an Enhancement Request in my to-do list.

But such a decision should base an knowledge and careful weighing, not on  	unknowingness and wrong comparison
Comment 6 Edwin Sharp 2014-04-20 07:00:19 UTC
There are workarounds to the given example.
The detailed explication can be incorporated into validity input help.
The detailed explication can be located in frozen cells not affected by scrolling.

A valid bug can be issued against:
a. previous versions behavior
b. specification defining a different behavior
c. help describing a different behavior
d. other spreadsheet programs with different behavior

A valid bug report can not be issued based on subjective expectation.
For me the validity input help is a nuisance the moment I finished reading it.
Keywords=needhelp for more thoughts