Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 76515
Decimal places should be "undefined" for default view.
Last modified: 2009-11-01 08:07:17 UTC
Opposite to other spreadsheets, calculate requires a fixed number of decimal places for the "general" number format. The number of decimal places is controlled using tools - Options - OOo.Calc - Calculate, "Decimal places". As a result, numbers with a large number of digits (depending on the current cell width) will more rapidly be represented as "##" than in other spreadsheets. For example, with a decimal setting of 3, following number 12345.6789 might be displayed as ## in Calc (depending on the column width) while under the same circumstances, competing spreadsheets would just display less decimals, e.g. 12345.6 and only display ## if also the integer part doesn't fit in the cell anymore. The latter approach allows for greater flexibility in the default display of numbers. In Calc, a user has to recur more rapidly to adapting the cell width (which will affect the whole column) or changing the "Decimal places" option (which will affect the whole spreadsheet). Thus, I would suggest that the "Decimal places" option in "Calculate" dissappears, and that instead Calc handles the default display in a more advanced and flexible way, i.e. * Show the integer part and as many decimals that fit * Even better yet for numbers that won't fit: switch to exponential format
This might be interesting for EXCEL import, if EXCEL really limits the number of shown decimals due to cell width
I very much agree with this. All spreadsheets that I have used in the past (Quattro Pro, Lotus, Excel) have as the default format a "general format" which behaves as proposed above, and switches to scientific notation when necessary. Today I tried to use OOo for a calculation, and it gave me "0". I didn't believe it, and by changing the format I discovered that it was something like 0.00001. I consider this to be very bad.
reassigning features and enhancements to user requirements@openoffice.org which will be the default owner for those tasks (was introduced some time ago)
Enter a number "-0.001". It is displayed by default as "0". This is simply crazy and unacceptable.
This problem is tracked in issue 46511. Please move your votes. *** This issue has been marked as a duplicate of 46511 ***
duplicate -> closed