Issue 60301

Summary:

enhance Column tab of "Table properties" dialog

Product:

Writer

Reporter:

raindrops <na1000>

Component:

formatting

Assignee:

AOO issues mailing list <issues>

Status:

CONFIRMED ---

QA Contact:

Severity:

Trivial

Priority:

CC:

issues, lars_o_hansen

Version:

OOo 2.0.1

Keywords:

oooqa

Target Milestone:

---

Hardware:

All

OS:

All

Issue Type:

ENHANCEMENT

Latest Confirmation in:

---

Developer Difficulty:

---

Attachments:

Description	Flags
Sample file (also contains suggested behavior)	none

Description raindrops 2006-01-10 09:01:34 UTC

The "Column" tab of "Table properties" works unpredictably; especially in
complex tables. (By "complex table", I mean a table that has some split or
merged cells.)

In such cases, the cells are not stacked one above other: They are staggered.
The "Column" tab of "Table properties" cannot set the width of columns as desired. 

Depending upon what is highlighted, the results are different-
1. Click in a cell and use it.
2. Select a part of the table and use it.
3. Select the whole tabl;e and use it.

But in all three cases, the results ar totally non-intuitive.

Comment 1 lars 2006-01-10 19:06:32 UTC

could you clarify a bit: what do you mean by "In such cases, the cells are not 
stacked one above other: They are staggered"? The dialogue is for sizing the 
columns and it always shows the number of columns in the current row and their 
widths.
How does the dialogue currently work and what should the dialogue do instead?

Comment 2 raindrops 2006-01-11 08:46:31 UTC

Sorry for not defining the problem in depth. 

I'll attach a document in a couple of days to illustrate the problem.

Thanks for your patience!

Comment 3 raindrops 2006-01-11 13:24:12 UTC

Created attachment 33109 [details]
Sample file (also contains suggested behavior)

Comment 4 raindrops 2006-01-11 13:40:49 UTC

I have created at attachment. The desired behavior is also explained there.

BTW the dialog is meant for the entire TABLE, not the current row. So it is
non-intuitive if one of the tabs works only for a part of it.

The appearance of this tab certainly does not indicate that it is meant for the
current row. (BTW in case of a selection, the top-left corner is taken as
current cell, and only that row is affected. I don't know if this is the
official definition of "current row" in OOo documents: What if I started the
selection from any of the other 3 corners? Where would my "current row" be?)

Also consider the following:
* No provision to alter several/all rows at once
* After setting a row, there is no provision to proceed to the next row from
within the dialog. After setting the row, the user has to close the dialog,
select the next row in the table and start the dialog (2-3 clicks) all over
again! Imagine a table with 50 rows.

*****
BTW it turns out that my earlier observation of the problem is not accurate. The
problem is of a different nature. Sorry about that!

Comment 5 lars 2006-01-11 17:27:28 UTC

the current design is at least consistent, isn't it?

instead of fields for only the columns for the current or topmost selected row 
reporter wishes to have fields for all rows columns with not selected rows 
column fields disabled. There should be functionality like a tick box for each 
column for changing several rows columns at once (the same relative change 
applied to the other rows column as for the entered rows column).