https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=85764
Bug ID: 85764
Summary: Feature request following closure of bug 43008
Product: LibreOffice
Version: 4.2.6.3 release
Hardware: x86 (IA32)
OS: Linux (All)
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Severity: enhancement
Priority: medium
Component: Spreadsheet
Assignee: libreoffice-bugs@lists.freedesktop.org
Reporter: aleph0hpela-b...@yahoo.co.uk
OK, as requested I'm putting in a feature request.
As reported in 43008, if a user attempts to paste a single value into a whole
column, it takes a very long time to do it: to a naive user it appears to hang.
I agree that it's not a bug. Libre Office is entitled to do whatever its
developers specify it to do. However if it does something like this when the
other well-known spreadsheet (MS Excel) performs this operation effectively
instantly, this is at least a significant inconvenience to users and a
deterrent to users from migrating to LO Spreadsheet. Even if it isn't actually
a bug, it looks like a bug and it walks like a bug and it quacks like a bug. I
could argue that it is a specification error although not an implementation
bug.
This situation is made a bit worse by the fact that if you copy a column in LO
and paste it over another column, it does this instantly: I presume you are
smart enough to only paste the cells that have something in them. This gives
users a reasonable expectation that pasting something into a column should
happen quickly. If I recall correctly, pasting a format into a whole column is
also done quickly: only pasting data into a whole column is slow.
I don't know how MS Excel does a paste of a single number into a column so
quickly. My guess is that it has some sort of notion of the default value in a
column, and it only overwrites that and then redraws the cells which are
visible. Presumably it would require significant surgery to make LO do this.
You have to deal with the same case for rows and consider what happens to a
cell whose row and column both have (different) defaults. This still wouldn't
deal with the problem of pasting a block of cells into one or more columns: I
don't know if MS Excel does this quickly since I don't use it any more.
So my feature request is to do something other than tying up the processor for
a long time when the user requests a paste into one or more whole columns or
rows. My *preferred* solution would of course be to do it quickly since this is
what users really want. If the developers don't feel that it is worth the work
required, then a fallback solution would be to put up a dialog box with some
sort of estimate of how long it will take, and ask the user if they really want
to do it.
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