I cannot confirm it. The shortcut works well in OOo3.1.1, OOo3.2Beta and DEV300
m64, all on WinXP.

Do you use the * of the number pad?

Please try the newest version of OOo. http://download.openoffice.org/

I am currently using the most up to date version 3.1.1. This behavious is 
reproducable since OOo 2.x - maybe even versions before that.

If this should be a matter of "normal keyboard asterisk" vs "numpad asterisk", this 
issue has to be fixed asap for several reasons, the main reason being:

There is no differentiation between those two keys in the keyboard shortcut dialog, 
which would indicate that one key is meant, but not the other. Hence - as long as 
there is no differentiation - there is no way to create misleading duplicate key 
bindings (one for keyboard, one for numpad), but the user simply expects that Ctrl
+* will work.

So this keybinding - and others maybe affected too - has to work no matter how 
you reach the special character that is involved. Everything else would be 
misleading and irritating.

I raised the priority to P2 as it is a severe usability issue, which would hinder 
people on notebooks to work as they should. 

It is a matter of keyboard. I cite the topic "Shortcut Keys for Spreadsheets" in
the help:
Ctrl + *
where (*) is the multiplication sign on the numeric key pad
Selects the data range that contains the cursor. A range is a contiguous cell
range that contains data and is bounded by empty row and columns.

It cannot work with a normal *, because you might have to use an additional
shift to reach the normal * and that would be a different shortcut.
If you will use that command on a notebook without numpad, you have to switch
the notebook keyboard with NumLock or you can assign the command to another
shortcut. You find the command "Select Data Area" in the "Edit" category.

Please notice that such a problem is never a P2 issue. P2-issues are "crash
during normal operations" or "data loss by normal operations" for example.

You cited the online help correctly, but nevertheless this is a severe usability issue 
as many people are working on notebooks and toggling the numpad status on and 
off counteracts the meaning of shortcuts.

Besides that this shortcut is well-known from Microsoft Excel and we certainly do 
not want to aggrevate Excel user's lives, do we?

The next good reason in changing this: As there is no means at all to assign Strg
+Shift+Plus to this function, it will simply be inaccessible for notebook users the 
"usual" way.

And please let me point out this little "glitch" again: as long as there is no 
differentiation in the shortcut assignment dialog, which clearly indicates that a 
certain key (numpad * vs normal *) is meant, this is really misleading and 
irritating.

There certainly should be an option to assign both keys separately, but this would 
mean to rework the key binding dialog, thus, for the time being, it simply has to be 
asserted that if somebody chooses "*" or any other special character, he gets 
what he chooses. This should be IMHO no big deal to check the pressed shortcut 
key for it's analogon.

Please feel free to change the subject and to forward this issue to someone in 
charge to solve this issue, but it is definitely an important matter.

The same applies to the other "numpad only" shortcuts.

BTW: I changed the priority to P2 as the descriptions says:
A critical usability problem;
e.g. a user interface which renders the underlying functionality incomprehensible 
for the majority of users

which is IMHO clearly the case here ... but no need to argue about this one. :)

Please just make sure that this issue is addressed properly, thank you very much 
for your patience and effort. 

Predefine short cut Strg+Shift+Plus for 'Block Select'.
Predefine short cuts for the other commands, which currently can be only used
with numpad.
Use those short cuts which are used by Microsoft Excel.

Ctrl+Shift+Plus is not available in the key bindings dialog and besides that this 
issue needs to be addressed in general. Please escalate it.