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Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Full Text Issue Listing |
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Description
Stefan Weigel
2008-12-10 10:29:51 UTC
Created attachment 58678 [details]
sreenshot showing unfavourable position of active cell after selecting a range
Created attachment 58679 [details]
Screenshot from competitor. Active cell resides at the beginning of the selected range
Created attachment 58680 [details]
screenshot showing unfavourable preselection of last column as sort criteria, due to unfavourable position of the active cell after selecting a range
Created attachment 58681 [details]
Screenshot from competitor. Reasonable preselection of sort criteria, due to reasonable position of active cell.
I think this issue shouldn't be fixed.Why the Calc shoud be the same with Excel. Mao, the reason why the position of the active cell should be changed is usability. We don´t want to change it because we want to do the same as Microsoft. But when Microsoft´s solution definitely serves better usability, why shouldn´t we adopt their solution? You can first select D7 then drag to B3, and then the range B3:D7 will be selected with the active cell being B3. From the User Experience perspective, it seems more natural that the active cell is the one that receive the mouse release event, rather than the one receiving the "button down" event. Clement, UX perspective: Please read the *reasons* given with the initial issue description. From the users point of view it would be favourable to have the active cell where the user began dragging. This is basically a duplicate of Issue 102151, which I have attached a patch for. I am of the opinion that the cell cursor should stay at the point of origin, as it is obvious based on the fact that I bothered to write a patch for it. *** Issue 102151 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. *** Created attachment 64450 [details]
latest patch from go-oo to implement this
As I'm painfully aware, attaching a patch will not affect the fate of this since we need to get approval from user experience (sadly no developers have any power over such matters), but I would personally love to get this patch integrated. I requested assistance from UX. http://ux.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=request&msgNo=49 Created attachment 64464 [details]
QuotroPro screen shot
It's definitely not a question of trying to be like M$. My attachment shows the same behavior in Corel QuatroPro as Excel does. It's a definite requirement in my opinion. And seeing as there's a patch (thanks kohei) it should not be a question of too few resources. Created attachment 64465 [details]
Excel Video Screen Capture
Created attachment 64466 [details]
Quatro Pro Video Screen Capture
Just had another look. Both Excel & Quatto Pro work as follows: If the user selects a range of cells, the "current" cell is always the 1st selected in the range. Then also the sorting is calculated on that column by default. See the 2 video screen captures attached. I'm in 2 minds if this is correct. On the one hand the user now has more control over how a selection is done, but on the other a user may not know it works this way. But still, IMHO, the Excell / Quattro Pro method is more intuitive ... see e.g. when pasting a range selection, the cursor is placed at the top-left-most cell of the new selection. *** Issue 111922 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. *** I just filed a duplicate to 102626 which touches the sorting aspect. Another aspect is copying ranges. If one selects a range to copy, it would be more intuitive if the focus were put at top left of the range. This way, to move to the destination, one could readily use the keyboard arrow instead of the mouse, moving in the same column (or row). This frequently would be much faster. An example is copying a range of one row (or column) to multiple rows (or columns). (Something which I often do in setting up a new spreadsheet table.) *I would differ somewhat in the proposed solution* Putting the focus at "top/left" seems better than at the "initial position" when defining a range, since intuitively one conceptualises a range from top/left to bottom/right, even if one defines it by moving from another corner of the range. (Note that other comments indicate that this is how both Ms-Excel + Quatro-Pro work.) In sum, putting the focus of a range of cells at top/left rather than the last corner defined would definitely enhance usability. |