Calc/To-Dos/Usability

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This page documents the usability activities for OOo. The page has been created in July 2007 and will be updated on a regularly basis.

UX To Do List for OOo 3.x

1. Issue no.: 20857: (55) R1C1 notation for the spreadsheet

UX To Do List for OOo 3.3

1. Issue no.: 3687: Make CSV import/export filter settings persistent [patch]: Done

UX To Do List for OOo 3.2

1. Issue no.: 8302: (111 Votes) Want to be able to insert into the middle of merged cells: Done
2. Issue no.: 60401: Calc does not support all users' strategies regarding sorting data: Done
3. Issue no.: 25855: (38) Copy multiple separated rows: Done

UX To Do List for OOo 3.1

1. Issue no.: 59745: (44) Cell notes do not move when cells are sorted in Calc : Done

UX To Do List for OOo 3.0

1. Issue no.: 60406: Column & Row Headers: No feedback on switching off: Done
2. Issue no.: 33851: Behavior with cut/copy/paste/fill cells and autofilter: Specification draft: Done
3. Issue no.: 8811: Allow multiple users to edit the same spreadsheet Specification: Done

UX To Do List for OOo 2.4

The following issues have been selected from the top-17 and the ux-ctest list below:

1. Issue no.: 7180: Need ability to move columns/rows in spreadsheet: Specification: Done OOo 2.4
2. Issue no.: 4040: Convert text to columns: Specification: Done OOo 2.4
3. Issue no.: 27745: Basing autofiltering on the result set, not all rows: Specification: Done OOo 2.4
4. Issue no.: 20496: Enhanced formula input: Specification: Done OOo 2.4
5. Issue no.: 15546: Enter-Key behaves not as expected: Specification: Done OOo 2.4
6. Issue no.: 66857: Control+Enter to create line breaks doesn't always work: OOo 2.4?
7. Issue no.: 7269: Page Down Should Switch Pages if there is nothing to scroll: Done OOo 2.4
8. Issue no.: 82071: Flaws in print logic: Specification: Done OOo 2.4
9. Issue no.: 24372: Individual per Tab Percent View: Specification: Done OOo 2.4
10. Issue no.: 59697: Need selection of 'current sheet' for printing:: OOo 2.4 Done
11. Issue no.: 75766: View Properties per Sheet in Calc: OOo 2.4 Done
12. Issue no.: 4695: INDIRECT function fails with named cells

UX To Do List for OOo 2.3

The following UX issues have been solved for OOo 2.3.

1. Issue no.: 78661: Auto-capitalization in Calc cells is perceived as very annoying: Specification: Done OOo 2.3
2. Issue no.: 25278: Print only selected spreadsheet: Done OOo 2.3
3. Issue no.: 78488: New Error Message when print output is empty: Done OOo 2.3
4. Issue no.: 51564: Sum function does not automatically recognize target cell for result: Specification: Done OOo 2.3
5. Issue no.: 38108: Calc K/B shortcuts: Done OOo 2.3

UX Issue Sources

High Votes Issues in April 2008

The following issues are the top 20 high voted Calc issues in April 2008.

1. Issue no.: 8302: (111 Votes) Want to be able to insert into the middle of merged cells
2. Issue no.: 5560: (75) Spreadsheet Sheet Labels (change Color and Font)
3. Issue no.: 5930: (71) Engineering Notation
4. Issue no.: 12666: (61) Autofilter works just on one sheet (only one auto-range per
5. Issue no.: 30215: (57) Further thoughts on row limits
6. Issue no.: 20857: (55) R1C1 notation for the spreadsheet
7. Issue no.: 21280: (50) Automatic Insert (shift down or shift right) of cells, colum
8. Issue no.: 2131: (47) Ability to merge cells already merged
9. Issue no.: 15773: (45) Currency symbol left justified, while amount right justified
10. Issue no.: 59745: (44) Cell notes do not move when cells are sorted in Calc
11. Issue no.: 35579: (42) Standard filter requires more options..
12. Issue no.: 6087: (40) ODF: Allow all characters in sheet names: Done OOo 3.0
13. Issue no.: 25855: (38) Copy multiple seperated rows
14. Issue no.: 22762: (33) Page preview for Selection
15. Issue no.: 33723: (31) Ability to turn off Number Recognition in Calc
16. Issue no.: 5658: (24) Spreadsheet thinks a number is a string (text)
17. Issue no.: 87970: (22) Hebrew Characters in Spreadsheet Names Became Misdisplayed
18. Issue no.: 38494: (21) Copy/Paste numbers from Writer to Calc: decimal separator in
19. Issue no.: 5759: (19) DataPilot: allow more than 8 data fields
20. Issue no.: 3687: (18) Make CSV import/export filter settings persistent (e.g. the

High Votes Issues in July 2007

The following issues are the top 17 high voted Calc issues in July 2007.

1. Issue no.: 7180: Need ability to move columns/rows in spreadsheet: Specification: Done OOo 2.4
2. Issue no.: 33851: Behavior with cut/copy/paste/fill cells and autofilter: Specification draft: Done OOo 3.0
3. Issue no.: 8811: Allow multiple users to edit the same spreadsheet through workbook sharing: Done OOo 3.0
4. Issue no.: 8275: More border types (dashed, dotted, etc)
5. Issue no.: 4040: Convert text to columns: Done
6. Issue no.: 5560: Spreadsheet Sheet Labels (change Color and Font)
7. Issue no.: 27745: Basing autofiltering on the result set, not all rows.: Done
8. Issue no.: 5930: Engineering Notation
9. Issue no.: 15773: Currency symbol left justified, while amount right justified in a cell.
10. Issue no.: 21280: Automatic Insert (shift down or shift right) of cells, columns, or rows when cut, or copied, and pasted
11. Issue no.: 20857: R1C1 notation for the spreadsheet
12. Issue no.: 12666: Autofilter works just on one sheet (only one auto-range per document)
13. Issue no.: 20496: Enhanced formula input: Done
14. Issue no.: 59745: Cell notes do not move when cells are sorted in Calc
15. Issue no.: 25855: Copy multiple separated rows: Done
16. Issue no.: 4695: INDIRECT function fails with named cells
17. Issue no.: 15546: Enter-Key behaves not as expected: Done

UX-ctest Issues

The following ux-ctest issue have been recorded during usability sessions.

1. Issue no.: 60408: Sum Icon in Calc not Found: Specification
2. Issue no.: 60406: Column & Row Headers: No feedback on switching off: Done OOo 3.0
3. Issue no.: 60403: Edit menu: Expected menu command to duplicate sheets
4. Issue no.: 60402: German terminology in context menu for sheet controls could be misunderstood
5. Issue no.: 60401: Calc does not support all users' strategies regarding sorting data
6. Issue no.: 60400: Spreadsheet handling wording table vs. spreadsheet
7. Issue no.: 60399: Delete Columns/Rows in the context menu is missing if the cursor is not positioned on Column/Row Header
8. Issue no.: 51564: Sum function does not automatically recognize target cell for result: Specification: Done OOo 2.3

Customer UX Issues and Patches

The following issue have been recorded during expert talks with customers.

1. Issue no.: 78661: Auto-capitalization in Calc cells is perceived as very annoying: Specification: Done OOo 2.3
2. Issue no.: 969: Auto-Correct on leaving cells does not work:
3. Issue no.: 25278: Print only selected spreadsheet: Done OOo 2.3
4. Issue no.: 78488: New Error Message when print output is empty: OOo 2.3 Done
5. Issue no.: 7269: Page Down Should Switch Pages if there is nothing to scroll: Done OOo 2.4
6. Issue no.: 51656: Edit columns width and page margins: Done OOo 2.3
7. Issue no.: ??????: Add Color Picker and Link to Color Dialog to Color Float
8. Issue no.: 66484 Missing Range Chooser Issue
9. Issue no.: 5432 F4 should repeat last command
10. Issue no.: 10864: Color chooser do not show latest color
11. Issue no.: 59697: Need selection of 'current sheet' for printing: Done OOo 2.4
12. Issue no.: 75766: View Properties per Sheet in Calc Done OOo 2.4
13. Issue no.: 3687: Make CSV import/export filter settings persistent [patch]: Done OOo 2.4

Further UX Issues

Issue List from the French Community

The French community has also build an issue list for Calc. This list will also be taken into account when determining which issues have to be fixed in future versions.

Issues Proposed by flaime

1. Issue no.: 2131: Ability to merge cells already merged
2. Issue no.: 8302: Want to be able to insert into the middle of merged cells

Issues Proposed by Discoleo

Data Typing

1. Strong Data Typing See issue 79924. Every decent programming language implements a data typing mechanism in order to reduce the error rate during programming. However, spreadsheets have failed to introduce any typing, although a significant number of errors could be prevented IF such a mechanism was built in place.

2. CURRENCY Calc should implement a strong typing system. In a first phase, I advocate implementing a separate data-type for currency and a typing system handling currency operations (a generic currency type first), later expanding it to further units (more currency subtypes and probably 'time-units' being next, followed by other units). For full details, see issue 79924.

ADVANTAGES

This would allow catching errors of type <currency> + <scalar> or <currency> * <currency> early up, thereby mitigating potential disastrous financial outcomes and lots of hours of spreadsheet debugging.

Discoleo 20:29, 23 July 2007 (CEST)

Duplicate Data

3. DUPLICATE DATA Duplicate spreadsheets as well as duplicate data introduced trough copying the same data predisposes to multiple errors. If one wrong value is discovered, correcting every occurrence of that data value, if multiple copies of the same data are present, is a daunting task. Various features allow reducing duplicate data entries. These are more fully discussed in issue 80139.

This is an extension of

• issue 8811: collaborative editing of spreadsheets

ALL users work on the same spreadsheet, therefore NO duplicate data

• issue 66817: Paste as bidirectional references, aka HARD-LINKS (Unix style hard links)

e.g. cell B1 contains: = A1; if the user spots an error in the value displayed in B1 and corrects that value, this correction is propagated back into cell A1

• issue 34213: Paste as (simple) reference (though hard-links are more powerful)
• further features regarding tracking changes and versioning the document (not filed yet)
  • in a multi-user environment, a specific user is interested in tracking changes only in a limited portion of the document; therefore, one should have the ability to define functional areas in the spreadsheet
  • track only changes in these functional areas: see issue 80325 for further details
  • most often the user needs to track changes in computed values, although this is currently not possible (only direct changes are displayed, see issue 80325)
  • the watch window (issue 28386) goes in that direction
  • mediawiki is another program where one can learn some additional track changes features (e.g. one edits only one functional area)

Discoleo 20:41, 28 July 2007 (CEST)

Send feedback to: Frank Loehmann