https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=171130
Bug ID: 171130
Summary: Separate Warning Configuration for Single-Sheet Export
(CSV) vs General Alien-Format Warning
Product: LibreOffice
Version: 26.2.0.3 release
Hardware: ARM
OS: macOS (All)
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Severity: enhancement
Priority: medium
Component: LibreOffice
Assignee: [email protected]
Reporter: [email protected]
Description
This request is related to bug 154709, which addresses warning behavior when
exporting multi-sheet documents to CSV.
The current warning message when saving to non-ODF (“alien”) formats is
adequate. The issue is not wording, but configurability.
At present, the setting: “Warn when saving in alien format” is global. If a
user disables this warning—for example, due to routine use of XLS/XLSX—then the
warning is also disabled for CSV exports.
CSV differs materially from formats like XLS/XLSX because it structurally
supports only one sheet. Exporting a multi-sheet document to CSV results in
guaranteed omission of all non-active sheets.
Let's say a user rarely or never uses csv files but uses xls files routinely
with LibreOffice. That user decides to suppress the warning for saving as xls
(they are aware of the risks of saving files as xls instead of ods and find
them acceptable). Then, later, they open a csv file, start editing, and add a
second sheet. Then when they save and quit they will have lost all but the
active sheet with no warning.
So the issue is that there is currently no separate configuration option to
preserve warnings for single-sheet formats while suppressing general
compatibility warnings.
Request
Introduce a distinct configuration control for export formats that structurally
omit sheets (e.g., CSV), separate from the general alien-format warning.
For example:
Existing: “Warn when saving in alien format”
Proposed additional option: “Warn when exporting multi-sheet documents to
single-sheet formats”
This would allow users to disable routine compatibility prompts while retaining
protection against guaranteed sheet loss when exporting to CSV.
Rationale
1) The issue concerns configuration granularity, not document model behavior.
2) CSV export entails deterministic structural data omission.
3) The current global toggle suppresses warnings across formats with different
risk profiles.
4) Separating these controls improves data-loss protection without changing
editing behavior
Thank you for considering!
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