Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 16751
calculations in a table in Writer unintuitive and different from spreadsheet
Last modified: 2013-02-07 22:39:36 UTC
Doing calculations in cells in a table in Draw is different from calcultations in cells in a spreadsheet. In a spreadsheet: You type =a1+b4 In a table in Draw: You have to type =<A1>+<B4> The only way to not having to type those dreadful brackets and uppercase cellnames is by selecting the cells with the mouse. this results in: Keyboard: = Mouse: click on cell Keyboard: + Mouse: click on next cell Keyboard: Enter And all this for the simplest calculation available :(
From what has been said, I get the impression that this is supposed to be like this. It definitely doesn't seem like a priority. I'm setting the priority from P3 to P4. I think that Nat has a point. It should be as simple as a procedure in a Calc document. I tried it in Writer, & it works just as he described. I will now set the status to New. Maybe the developers can make it so that the user only has to hold Ctrl, then click each cell that he wants to add together. Right now you can hold Shift to select a range of cells, but some users may only want 2 or more cells out of the whole range. Also, in the Component field & Summary, Nat said that this should be a Writer problem. Yet in the comment above, Nat said that this is a Draw problem. Nat would you please clarify the difference? Standard disclaimer: I'm new @ this, & the fields can be put back to where they were. :^)
Hi Eugene, OOps, I'm sorry. It is a Writer problem. I don't know why I wrote Draw... :S -- I tried it in Writer, & it works just as he described. I will -- now set the status to New. Maybe the developers can make it so -- that the user only has to hold Ctrl, then click each cell that -- he wants to add together. Right now you can hold Shift to select -- a range of cells, but some users may only want 2 or more cells -- out of the whole range. I think that this does not solve the problem. The *REAL* trouble is that you cannot work _only_ with the keyboard or _only_ with the mouse. You'd have to select the cells with the mouse, but you'd have to use the keyboard to type the operators ... Besides it is very annoying to _have_ to put the pointy brackets around the cell names, when you leave them out they are not recognized as cell names. And yes, I think that it should work like in Calc, it is very confusing to have calculation functions that are so very different from the same functions in a spreadsheet BTW I am a she :) Thanks Natalie
Reassigned to BH
After having trouble with setting up a simple invoice in Writer I came to this issue and found that I was not the first with this problem ;) The problem (having to type "<A1>" instead of "a1" to reference cells in a Writer table) apparently still exists in 1.1.1a and - to be honest - I think it lies somewhere between an enhancement request and a real defect. It is quite a nuisance to have to type angled brackets and uppercase letters - and I hope it will be considered as - call it a usability defect. Just my €0.02...
Created attachment 12558 [details] Calculations in a table in Writer: < > required
OpenOffice.org Issue Tracker - Feedback Request. The Issue you raised has the status 'New' pending further action, but has not been updated within the last 4 years. Please consider re-testing with one of the latest versions of OOo, as the problem(s) may have already been addressed. Either use the recent stable version: http://download.openoffice.org/index.html or consider trying the new OOo 3 BETA (still in testing): http://download.openoffice.org/3.0beta/ Please report back the outcome so this Issue may be Closed or Progressed as necessary - otherwise it may be Resolved as Invalid in the future. You may also wish to search for (and note) any duplicates of this Issue that may have advanced further by checking the Issue Tracker: http://www.openoffice.org/issues/query.cgi Many thanks, Andrew Cleaning-up and Closing old Issues as part of: ~ The Grand Bug Squash, pre v3 ~ http://marketing.openoffice.org/3.0/announcementbeta.html
I checked with "Ooo 3.0.1 (DE) Multilingual version German UI WIN XP: [OOO300m15 (Build 9379)]" and can confirm the reported problems.
*** Issue 99089 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
To grep the issues easier via "requirements" I put the issues currently lying on my owner to the owner "requirements".